Monthly Archives: October 2020
Kazakhstan Now Uses Borat’s “Very Nice” as Tourism Ads Slogan
Moon Knight: Oscar Isaac In Talks to Star in Disney Plus Series
NASA Announces Discovery of Water on Sunlit Surface of the Moon
NASA x Moon: Scientists Talk Discovery
Casey Honniball, the lead author on the study who published the results from her graduate thesis work at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa in Honolulu, said, “Without a thick atmosphere, water on the sunlit lunar surface should just be lost to space, yet somehow we’re seeing it. Something is generating the water, and something must be trapping it there.” SOFIA detected water molecules in the Clavius Crater (one of the largest visible craters) located in the southern hemisphere of the Moon. Observations prior to this found a form of hydrogen, but specifics between water and a chemical relative, hydroxyl, were not able to be distinguished. The authors of the published paper suggest the majority of water found is likely stored within volcanic glass or bind between small glass beads, sheltering it from the harsh lunar surface. In terms of how much water was discovered, NASA said the equal amount to approximately one 12-ounce bottle of water was found – which are stuck in a cubic meter of soil on the surface. They compared the findings further to the Sahara desert, saying the desert has 100 times the amount of water then what was discovered on the Moon. However, even though the amount seems small, scientists are wondering how water is created and could withstand the harsh surface of the Moon – in which, further observations are necessary. The researchers are not sure the accessibility of the water, but this was the first time SOFIA was used in a study on the Moon. Naseem Rangwala, SOFIA’s project scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley said, "It’s incredible that this discovery came out of what was essentially a test, and now that we know we can do this, we’re planning more flights to do more observations."Moon Water Findings and Human Space Exploration
"There's a classic problem in rocket science that we're not going to be able to solve any time soon: bringing supplies to space is really expensive," Aaron White, astrophysicist at University of San Francisco told IGN. "For every extra pound of water or food you put on a rocket's payload, you've got to add more fuel to lift it off the ground. That fuel has its own weight though, so you've got to add fuel to lift that fuel off the ground. Then that fuel has weight.... it's an exponential problem." "If we're able to gather essentials from space, rather than haul them up, that could hugely reduce the cost of space travel," White explained. "Drinking water is the first obvious one, but there's also a lot of potential if you break down water to its base components. The H and the O in H2O, hydrogen and oxygen, are highly reactive when separated and could be used to make rocket fuel right on the moon's surface. And of course if you're a fan of breathing, extra oxygen on hand is always a plus." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=cosmos-possible-worlds-gallery&captions=true"] In terms of future space exploration as a whole, White weighed in on possibilities, saying long distance space travel would become much more economically attainable. "There's been an idea for a while of using the moon as a pitstop for more distant missions, to Mars and possibly beyond. Bringing only the bare necessities as you leave Earth and picking up your supplies there would make it far easier and cheaper to get astronauts off the ground."Future Moon Research for Space
Follow-up studies for SOFIA and the Moon include looking at other sunlit locations during various lunar phases. The scientists are hoping to find out how water is created, stored, and transported in the different places on the lunar surface. Plans to create a water resource map of the Moon is also on the docket for NASA's future missions to assist with human space exploration. "Water is a valuable resource, for both scientific purposes and for use by our explorers," Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist for NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate said. "If we can use the resources at the Moon, then we can carry less water and more equipment to help enable new scientific discoveries." "We've known that the moon has had water for a while now, but it wasn't clear how much there was," White said. "We knew there was frozen ice at the poles, and sometimes down in the bottoms of craters. There's been suspicion that water could be more abundant there (since the Moon is made of the same building blocks as the Earth, and we're lousy with the stuff), this finding shows there could be a lot more water available then we thought previously." NASA will send the first woman to the Moon in 2024, along with the next man, through their Artemis program. They are expecting to send humans to Mars in the 2030s, and they feel the further exploration that is done on the Moon will assist with more understanding of the solar system overall. The research was published in Nature Astronomy and can be read in its entirety. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jessie Wade is Homepage Editor at IGN and is fascinated with the Moon, black holes + anything in this floating world we call space. Follow her on Twitter @jessieannwade.Raven Co-Founder on Leading Black Ops Cold War After Supporting Call of Duty For 10 Years
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Brian Barnett writes wiki guides, deals posts, features, and much more for IGN. You can get your fix of Brian's antics on Twitter and Instagram (@Ribnax).Xbox Isn’t Actively Planning Bethesda’s Future Until After the Acquisition Is Complete
PS5 Launch Game Destruction AllStars Delayed to February
We recently got our hands on a PS5, but for now we can only show you the retail box. In other PS5 news, here's a helpful comparison between the Xbox Series X and PS5 launch titles. Preorders for the console are currently sold out, but if more go up they'll be in our PS5 preorder guide right away. For everything you need to know about PlayStation 5, check out our PS5 guide.
[poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.Sackboy: A Big Adventure: New PS5 Gameplay Details
Why Sackboy Will Run at a Locked 60 FPS
Though Sumo Digital has confirmed before that Sackboy will run at 60 FPS, Waterhouse spoke a bit at length about why, from the start of the project, this locked framerate was such a key facet of the game. “We said from day one, the absolute must was a smooth 60 frames per second because we focused on play and that was about creating the best platform we could. For us, that meant awesome character controls, and it meant a really responsive character,” Waterhouse said, explaining that that also meant a solid framerate on both the PS4 and PS5 versions of the game. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/sackboy-a-big-adventure-sumo-introduces-sackboy-video"] He continued, “So we said from the get-go, it has to be a solid 60 across all platforms. We use dynamic resolution scaling to ensure that we can keep it at a smooth 60, but that was our priority throughout development. And I hope that players feel the benefits of that when they play the game."Approachable, But With Some True Challenges
Platformers often have to thread a difficult needle of, well, difficulty, ensuring that they can be approachable from the start for players to learn the ropes, while also letting those who crave a challenge really test their skills. “We wanted to create an experience with broad appeal that everyone can enjoy, he's a wonderfully endearing character, the world is rich and it's inviting, and we just wanted lots and lots of people to get the chance to experience that and to enjoy that,” Waterhouse explained. But, of course, platforming fans crave a good challenge, and the Sumo Digital team took an interesting approach — namely, the difference in mastering the campaign and mastering all of Sackboy’s content comes in his moveset. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=ps5-ui-screenshots&captions=true"] “So the way that we approached this was, we said we're going to broaden Sackboy's moveset. We're going to introduce loads of new moves... But we said, we will only use a subset of those moves to complete the main adventure. That doesn't mean the main adventure doesn't have challenge. It's familiar and welcoming when you start out, the challenge increases as you become more accustomed to the character and the world. “But what you don't need to do is learn every move and you don't need to learn how to chain them all together. You can complete this game with a subset of those moves. However, if you want to set all the high scores, find all the secrets, master all the levels, beat the post-game and platinum this game, you are going to have to learn how to master this character.” In particular, Waterhouse pointed to a subset of levels called the Knitted Knight Trials, which Waterhouse described as “quick-fire, fast-paced arcade-y, bits of gameplay where you've got this hazard strewn obstacle course, one life, and you have to get to the finish line as quickly as you can.”PS4 Players Shouldn’t Be Disappointed
Sackboy is going to be a launch PS5 game and also hit PS4. It is aiming to take advantage of the new system’s advanced capabilities, including the DualSense controller, the system’s SSD, and more. But Waterhouse made it clear that PS4 players should not expect to be disappointed by the experience. “When it comes to the PlayStation 4 version of this game, I don't think anyone's going to be disappointed if they buy that version," he said. "For me and for the team, it was really important for us to be on that platform because we wanted as many people as possible to get a chance to play this game. That said, the new console is more powerful. It's got new features, and that allowed us to enhance both the visuals, take advantage of the SSD, and do some work with the DualSense and the haptics.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/sackboy-a-big-adventure-reveal-trailer-ps5-reveal-event"] Waterhouse and I were speaking in the context of what the DualSense brings to Sackboy’s adventure, but he wanted to make it clear that even without its unique capabilities, PS4 players can still expect the same platforming levels and challenges, along with the same performance goal of 60 FPS the devs had for both versions.A Slapstick Approach
Sackboy has always had a charming humor to him and his world, both the ones devised by players in the LittleBigPlanet series and in the levels built around him by Media Molecule and Sumo Digital. And injecting his new adventure with a Monty Python-esque style of comedy was something Waterhouse explained the team wanted to do not just in the game’s story but also through its gameplay. And it helps, as he described them, that the devs have a bit of “mischief” in them, anyway. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/sackboy-a-big-adventure-story-trailer"] “LittleBigPlanet has a rich vein of slightly irreverent and Python-esque comedy to it. And we were very mindful of that and we looked to carry that through the story of this game,” he said, continuing: "We've got a host of quirky characters... We've got 60 costumes in the game. They all break down into their constituent parts, you can paint all of those parts. We have some amazing looking costumes, but there is real flexibility in the system. And honestly, some of the things that the development team create are abominations,” he joked. He even went on to elaborate that the team found as many ways as possible to allow co-op players to interact with one another, both in ways to meaningfully make progress and to grief each other. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=ps5-box-pictures&captions=true"] “One thing that we did is we said there should be lots of ways for players to interact with each other. So in this game, you can slap each other. You can bounce off each other's heads, you can pick each other up and shock them. You can grapple them, you can do [the new move called] a roll run. “There are perfectly legitimate ways to use all of those moves in the game in order to progress. But also, you can sneak up behind your little brother and Slap him off a platform,” Waterhouse explained, mentioning that he wouldn’t be surprised if the game caused a few arguments during the holidays.Making a Great Co-Op Experience
And on the note of co-op, Waterhouse really drove home the point that, while Sackboy is built to be a great single player game, the team also always had co-op in mind for the adventure. In addition to the fun ways to grief your co-op partners, as well as interact through cooperative-specific emotes, there are a host of co-op specific levels that will really require players to put their skills to the test by working together. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/21/ps5s-launch-lineup-and-ui-beyond-episode-671"] Every level in the adventure is also possible in co-op, but Sumo Digital wanted to make sure that no two players ever felt like different skill levels or handling on the controls would deter from the overall experience. “We know that players of different abilities will want to play together. We have a few things in the game that allow you to [level the playing field]. We have an option that we call the assist copter. You can call in the copter when playing in multiplayer, Sackboy will light a flare, and this little crafted copter comes down and picks him up. “And what the copter does is it follows the lead player. Providing that one person can get through a section of gameplay, everyone can get through. We also have a shared life system in the game because it's there to encourage collaboration and teamwork and a little bit social responsibility. If you want to turn that off and enable infinite lives and just enjoy the platforming challenge, then you can do that." Sackboy: A Big Adventure will look to offer players plenty of ways to play, with dozens of varied levels, costumes to unlock and mix and match, and both single-player and co-op challenges to face. For more on what to expect from Sackboy and others, check out the list of PS5 preorder bonuses currently announced, as well as the full PS5 launch lineup. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor, PlayStation lead, and host of Podcast Beyond! Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.Fortnite Has ‘Many Years of Marvel Integration’ Planned
Ghostrunner Review
Ghostrunner's intense first-person parkour platforming demands perfection. Whether you're clearing out a neon cityscape of cyberpunk goons or racing on walls and sliding through vents of a gigantic factory, even a small miscalculation will get you killed. Your jumps need to be precise. Every swing of your sword should be deadly. Anything less isn't up to robot ninja spec. Ghostrunner is quick to punish, but it's also more than willing to reward players who rise to its challenge. Bouncing from wall to wall feels like flying. Running circles around gunmen, dodging bullets, and cutting them down without a scratch is exhilarating. It's a high-risk, high-reward situation: Struggling with failure after failure, even on simple tasks, is incredibly frustrating early on, but that anger eventually dissipates as your skill grows to reveal a thrilling test of your abilities.
Set in a cyberpunk-style post-apocalyptic world, Ghostrunner puts you in control of a robot ninja assassin on a mission to kill his world's authoritarian ruler. (She also nearly killed him a while back, so it's a twofer! Revolution and revenge.) There's a twisty, turny plot, but it's often very detached from what you're actually playing, as it's told almost exclusively through voiceover.
Ghostrunner adheres quite closely to tenets of cyberpunk's visual aesthetic. You run through dirty dilapidated cities with dark corners, contrasted with neon signs and bright screens lighting up the night. Some of the enemies you face are literal cyborg punks. Don't worry; there are also plenty of robots. There have been enough cyberpunk stories in games that this look isn't especially fresh, but that doesn't stop it from looking cool. It helps that, on a technical level, Ghostrunner looks very sharp. The environments, enemies, and your sword, which is always sticking out in front of you, are all incredibly detailed. It may not be the most creatively constructed, but it is appealing all the same.
Continue Reading at GameSpotGhostrunner Review
Ghostrunner's intense first-person parkour platforming demands perfection. Whether you're clearing out a neon cityscape of cyberpunk goons or racing on walls and sliding through vents of a gigantic factory, even a small miscalculation will get you killed. Your jumps need to be precise. Every swing of your sword should be deadly. Anything less isn't up to robot ninja spec. Ghostrunner is quick to punish, but it's also more than willing to reward players who rise to its challenge. Bouncing from wall to wall feels like flying. Running circles around gunmen, dodging bullets, and cutting them down without a scratch is exhilarating. It's a high-risk, high-reward situation: Struggling with failure after failure, even on simple tasks, is incredibly frustrating early on, but that anger eventually dissipates as your skill grows to reveal a thrilling test of your abilities.
Set in a cyberpunk-style post-apocalyptic world, Ghostrunner puts you in control of a robot ninja assassin on a mission to kill his world's authoritarian ruler. (She also nearly killed him a while back, so it's a twofer! Revolution and revenge.) There's a twisty, turny plot, but it's often very detached from what you're actually playing, as it's told almost exclusively through voiceover.
Ghostrunner adheres quite closely to tenets of cyberpunk's visual aesthetic. You run through dirty dilapidated cities with dark corners, contrasted with neon signs and bright screens lighting up the night. Some of the enemies you face are literal cyborg punks. Don't worry; there are also plenty of robots. There have been enough cyberpunk stories in games that this look isn't especially fresh, but that doesn't stop it from looking cool. It helps that, on a technical level, Ghostrunner looks very sharp. The environments, enemies, and your sword, which is always sticking out in front of you, are all incredibly detailed. It may not be the most creatively constructed, but it is appealing all the same.
Continue Reading at GameSpot