Monthly Archives: April 2015
Destiny Finally Lets You Exchange Materials
Bungie lifted the veil on a material exchange system that’s coming to Destiny in the House of Wolves expansion, which will release on May 19.
The system was implemented to streamline Destiny’s economy, according to Bungie. The Speaker, a major story character, will be the gateway for the exchange process. Players can take materials such as Ascentdant Shard, Ascendant Energy, Motes of Light, Glimmer, and more can be traded on a 1:1 basis for a small Glimmer fee, or sold to the NPC.
Get ready to trade in all the excess material you have in the next major Destiny update.
Halo: Spartan Strike Review
Right from the landmark battle aboard the UNSC Pillar of Autumn, the Halo franchise has almost always been a team effort, even though Master Chief has done most of the heavy lifting in the mainline series. That's where all the spin-offs and novels come in. As the follow-up to Vanguard Games' Halo: Spartan Assault, Halo: Spartan Strike is not only a spin-off, but also a top-down shooter that reinforces the notion that Halo need not be limited to the first-person perspective. From a continuity standpoint, Spartan Strike takes bigger risks than Spartan Assault, setting reprisals from Halo 2 while giving more screen time to the Prometheans, who weren't introduced to the series until Halo 4.
Spartan Strike's bite-sized five-minute missions fit in well with a straightforward story involving the Artifact of Doom plot device. In this case, the artifact is called the Conduit, a device that functions as a Promethean portal key. It is also a tried and tested sci-fi term that has been used in Mass Effect, Dead Space, and as the title of a Sega-published first-person shooter. Through much of Spartan Strike, the Conduit is subjected to a football-like change of hands between the UNSC Marine Corps and the Covenant.
Equally engaging is the opportunity to revisit familiar areas from the main series. In Halo 2, New Mombasa was a war-torn battleground where Master Chief was just one of countless soldiers tasked to repel the Covenant. The raised visual perspective of Spartan Strike shows off New Mombasa as a highly vertical metropolis. While you're guiding a Spartan-IV along a commercial district in the foreground, UNSC troops are holding their own on a bridge in the background, hundreds of yards away. Although your player-character functions like a one-man army, nothing detracts from the implied accomplishments of the soldiers in the surrounding areas. Conversely, the location shift to Gamma Halo (also known as Installation 03) is a less engrossing environment, as, for the most part, it's a generic jungle accented with Forerunner architecture.
The 15 years Halo has been around offers more than enough time for minor timeline errors and potential retconning. It might be inconsistent to see Prometheans in a story arc related to Halo 2, but that doesn't dilute the gratification of making them disintegrate, especially when using their own weapons.
Spartan Strike's bite-sized five-minute missions fit in well with a straightforward story involving the Artifact of Doom plot device trope.
Much like the Rappys in Phantasy Star Online and the blackbirds in Bloodborne, the Halo Grunts are the series' annoyance incarnate, which makes melee kills with rifle butts all the more satisfying. Even without the first-person view, killing up close in Spartan Strike quenches the bloodlust for these troublesome halflings. As in Spartan Assault, transposing familiar enemies into an overhead-camera perspective works, because of the familiar weapons used to kill them. The battle rifle bridges the lethality of the sniper rifle with the firing rate of the assault rifle, and, as always, makes short work of any elite. The same goes for the mounted gun atop a warthog, which doesn't suffer from overheating.
If you've played Spartan Assault (and you should have already, if you're a fan of Halo's expanded universe), the Spartan Strike mission objectives will be very familiar. A given stage will involve one, or a combination, of the following objectives: get from Point A to Point B, destroy X objects, or survive for X seconds. Again, these are short missions, and the simplicity of these assignments works well for Spartan Strike. Holding your ground in a limited space offers a glimpse of how a Fireflight mode would work as a twin stick shooter. Whatever your objectives, it's the abundance of Covenant and Prometheans that serves as the game's connective tissue. The odds seldom feel overwhelming, but there's still a lot of death to go around. Thrilling moments, like vanquishing energy sword-wielding elites, often make high-score incentives a secondary priority. And with all the A.I. marines joining the fight, it's a mystery that Spartan Strike lacks multiplayer, especially when it was one of the big draws of Spartan Assault.
That's not to say Spartan Strike is bereft of features. Customizable loadouts, uncommon in the mainline Halo campaigns, let you pair the assault rifle with a rocket launcher right out the door. Add an armor ability like a regen field, and you have a Spartan who can go toe-to-toe with the Chief. You are fortified well enough that, potentially, you could clear Spartan Strike without dying. This is compounded by the mandatory auto-aim, which cannot be toggled off in the Settings menu. At least you can count on Halo Skulls to give the Covenant and the Prometheans a fighting chance. Whether it's lack of armor or low ammo pick-ups, there's something to increase the stakes. As usual, using Skulls isn't a purely masochistic exercise; reward flirts with risk, since XP is multiplied with Skulls.
XP is the juicy core of Spartan Strike's replay incentives. It's the currency for purchasing optional weapons like the Spartan laser or the sniper rifle. These armaments significantly help in fulfilling Assault Ops goals, purely non-mandatory assignments that yield more XP, bragging rights, and progress toward a couple of achievements. And while, typically, achievements are not worth noting, Halo: Spartan Strike's inclusion as an Xbox game for Windows means that achievements can already be earned without having to wait for the unannounced but presumptive Xbox One version.
Much like Spartan Assault before it, Spartan Strike is the closest we have to a Halo game, had it existed in the late 1980s arcades. While the lack of multiplayer is disappointing, it features more than enough loadout options to add variety that it warrants repeat playthroughs. More importantly, Spartan Strike still retains Halo's core combat appeal despite the top-down view, auto-aiming, and amped up armor abilities. It preserves the palpable tension in emptying two M7 Caseless SMGs while back-pedalling against a brute. It's a familiar predicament for Halo fans, but one that can be remedied in Spartan Strike with the one-button ease of an air strike. That might be unfair to the brute, but if you've ever been on the receiving end of a gravity hammer, an air strike is hardly a cheap countermeasure.
Scientists Put Humans on Cruise Control
A group of scientists have outlined a way to assist in pedestrian navigation by controlling muscle movements with electrical impulses.
The scientific paper from a set of German scientists proposes what they call "actuated navigation." By sending a signal to the sartorius muscle, people can be steered slightly while walking to avoid hazards like crowds, obstacles, or uneven ground.
This technology could be used to provide a full navigational route that essentially steers the user on auto-pilot, rather than simple navigation information that the user would have to follow. For a prototype, the scientists brought in about 20 volunteers and studied the degrees that their electrical signals could steer their walking. Ultimately, it could be used to guide joggers on different paths, or help stadium-goers find their seat or efficiently evacuate in case of emergency.
Marvel’s Phase 2 Star Wars References Revealed
Marvel has been sneaking a Star Wars Easter egg into each of its films, according to studio boss Kevin Feige.
Feige told CinemaBlend that every movie in "Phase 2" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has paid homage to Star Wars by having a character lose an arm or hand, in one way or another.
"So I’m obsessed with Star Wars," he said, "and it didn’t start out as intentional, but it became intentional... It sort of happens in every Star Wars movie, but I was sort of looking at it, ‘Okay, is Phase Two our Empire Strikes Back?’ Not really, but tonally things are a little different. Somebody gets their arm cut off in every Phase Two movie. Every single one."
Has the Likeness of Russian Head Transplant Doctor Been Co Opted by Kojima?
Is Metal Gear Solid V somehow linked to the frighteningly real prospect of a head transplantation? If the internet conspiracy calculations are correct, then the answer is "yes."
Of course, to reach that conclusion, you need to follow a convoluted trail of scant evidence, hearsay and conjecture, which makes it oddly appropriate given the series to which the theory is tied. Put on your tin-foil hats, you don't want the government reading your thoughts about this one.
First pointed out on NeoGAF, the real-life Russian doctor behind the proposed world's first head transplant bears more than a passing resemblance to a doctor that appears in Metal Gear Solid 5.
First Look Photos at Vacation, Creed and More
Warner Bros. gave attendees at CinemaCon this week a preview of their upcoming slate of films, from next month's Mad Max: Fury Road to 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Alas, no new footage was shown from either of those two films that hasn't already been publicly released or shown.
Attendees did, however, get an exclusive first look at as yet to be released trailers for the studio's upcoming sequel-reboot of Vacation, the Whitey Bulger crime drama Black Mass, the Anne Hathaway-Robert De Niro dramedy The Intern, the Rocky Balboa spinoff Creed, and the Zac Efron drama We Are Your Friends.
Ed Helms and Christina Applegate were on hand to present the trailer for Vacation, which finds a grown-up Rusty Griswold (Helms) following in his father’s footsteps and hoping for some much-needed family bonding. He surprises his wife, Debbie (Applegate), and their two sons with a cross-country trip back to America’s “favorite family fun park,” Walley World. Along the way, they meet up with Rusty's sister Audrey (Leslie Mann) and, yes, their parents Clark and Ellen (Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo).
Colorado Man Shoots Computer 8 Times
The infamous blue screen of death turned out to be fairly literal for one unfortunate Dell PC, after its disgruntled owner decided to fire eight rounds into it using a 9mm handgun.
Colorado Springs Police Department - RIP Dell XPS 410 (2012 - 2015)
Lucas Hinch had been having problems with his Dell XPS 410 for a while before deciding to put it down earlier this week. Police arrived on scene after hearing the gunshots, for which Hinch received a ticket and a summons to appear in court.
Joss Whedon on Exiting the MCU
We are quickly approaching the release of Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron. For many fans, this will be a bittersweet treat, in that it marks the swan song for Joss Whedon's work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The director is of course behind the first Avengers movie, and has played a key role in the development of several additional Marvel films.
After achieving great success and helming one of the most highly-anticipated films of 2015, Whedon has decided that it is now time for him to move on to other projects.
When asked if the appeal of Spider-Man might be enough to temp him to remain in the Marvel sandbox just a little bit longer, Whedon replied, "There's a lot of good sand in this box, I'm not going to lie. I'm mean I've wanted to make superhero movies since I knew that there were superheroes and that there were movies. And for a long time I didn't think that was going to happen. And then it did...For like, five years. But I think having done that and having fulfilled that dream, hopefully people will like the movie and think it was a good idea to fulfill that dream. I have to do something else. Have another dream. And that would mean sleeping. Perhaps a dream of sleep."
How to Counter Scorpion in Mortal Kombat X
Welcome, Kombatants, to the first-ever Mortal Kombat X-focused episode of How To Counter!
We’ll be running down some basics for dealing with Scorpion. He isn’t a huge problem to deal with, but since we all know you’re going to see a ton of them online, we figured we should boil down the best ways to deal with the things you’ll see the average online warrior throw your way.
The key to remember with Scorpion is that while he has some good options, they’re all commitments. All you need to do is understand the situations when a Scorpion player wants to use certain moves, be ready to defend, and then know how to get the maximum reward. Characters like Kitana, who can turn punishment situations into above average damage excel at putting recklessly-played Scorpions in check.
Netflix’s Full House Revival, ABC’s Marvel Plans and Twin Peaks Woes
Whether it be the video above or the audio below, here's the time stamp info on what you'll find on Channel Surfing this week.
2:30-9:30: Netflix have ordered a Full House sequel series, Fuller House and we’re still trying to process it.9:30-19:00: Sifting through all of ABC’s plans for Marvel TV, including a Mockingbird SHIELD spinoff and a project from John Ridley.
19:00-26:30: Our time to bemoan David Lynch walking away from the Twin Peaks revival and speculate on what’s really going on.
26:30-34:10: In the wake of Star Wars Celebration, we discuss whether a Star Wars Rebels character could pop up in live-action in Rogue One.