Peter Molyneux demos Milo again!

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Lionhead Studios’ Peter Molyneux (creator of Fable) took the stage at TED last month to demo his artifically intelligent phenom Milo.  His presentation has finally been uploaded to the Internetz and is ready for our enjoyment.  The game utilizes Kinect for Xbox 360 to enable the player to interact with Milo and his virtual world with body movements, hand gestures, and speech.  The first tech demo was featured at E3 2009, and since then Milo has grown into a more full-fledged game.  This new 11-minute presentation explains Milo’s backstory (he has recently moved into a new home), his problem (he is having trouble acclimating to his new surroundings), and how the player factors into the game (you are there to befreind Milo and help him find his way in this new chapter of his life).  Molyneux explains that Microsoft’s TellMe database brings Milo out of the depths of standard yes/no responses and into a new era of speech commands in gaming.  The Kinect mic picks up your voice and the Milo software recognizes the intonation of your speech patterns.  It’s pretty wild.  Watch it unfold in the video above.

[Via TED]

Portal 2 gets a release date

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After numerous delays, Valve has decided to kick things in to high gear by announcing a firm release date for the sequel to 2007’s critically acclaimed puzzler.  Portal 2 will release on February 9, 2011 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, and Mac.  Valve has also confirmed that British writer and actor Stephen Merchant (The Office, Ricky Gervais Show) will voice the British robot Wheatley who has been featured in the game’s trailers.  “Meet Wheatley” at the Portal 2 site.

[Via GameInformer]

PlayStation pimps its new PS3 models

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On Tuesday Sony revealed two new PlayStation 3 SKUs.  The first is a plain jane PS3 with a 160GB hard drive.  It replaces the older SKU and keeps the same price of $299.99.  Buy it today.  The second model is a PS3 + PlayStation Move bundle.  Price at $399.99, it packs a 320GB hard drive and comes packed with one PS Move controller, one PlayStation Eye camera, a copy of Sports Champions, and a game demo disc.  The bundle will hit store shevles September 19, the same date PS Move launches.

[Via PlayStationBlog]

Xbox Live on Windows Phone 7 detailed

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With the launch of Windows Phone 7 just around the corner (Microsoft says Holidays 2010, other sources hint as early as October), it is about time Microsoft further detailed its Xbox Live gaming initiative on the forthcoming mobile platform.  If you own an Xbox 360 and have an Xbox Live account, navigating the Xbox Live gaming hub on a Window Phone 7 device will be a very familiar experience.  The first “tab” within the hub is named Profile and it stores your Xbox Live avatar, gamerscore, and message notifications.  Your avatar can be interacted with by tapping on it, shaking the phone, and spinning the phone in various orientations.  If you select the message notifications icon, you will be brought to the Messages tab where you’ll find a list of text and voice messages left by your Xbox Live friends.  You can send and receive messages on your device in real time just as you would on the console.  There’s also an Achievements tab that shows you all of your collected acheivements, categorized by game, on the phone and console.  You can tap a game title to view the specific achievements awarded within each game to see when you received them; you can then select a specific achievement to see how you received it.  The Friends tab congregates a bunch of your Friends’ avatars; tap anywhere on this screen to bring up your friends list.  You can see who is on and offline, what games your friends are currently playing, view friends’ acheivements, and compare your achievements to a specific friend’s achievement list.  If you click a friends’ gamertag from the list his (or her) avatar will fly on screen and you can view personal information like gamerscore, location, and bio.  It all works exactly in line with what you’re used to on the console; there are no surprises here.

Microsoft went all out on Avatar interaction and customization on the phone.  In the Profile tab you can select a button to enter the Avatar Closet.  Here you can customize your avatar with clothes, hats, and all kinds of gear.  You can use your finger to spin the avatar around to view its new style from various angles.  What you do with your avatar on the phone is reflected on the console, and vice versa.  At launch time, only free items will be available to download in the Avatar Closet.  However if you purchase a new look on the console, that will be reflected on the phone.  In addtion to customizing your avatar you can make them utilize Avatar Gadgets.  These are simple productivity tools that feature your avatar on-screen.  They include a flashlight, ruler, level, and coin toss.  Sure this is all a bit gimmicky, but it looks fun!

Now let’s talk about what’s most important here: the games.  Microsoft has announced the first wave of Windows Phone 7 games, and they include a list of over 60 titles from Microsoft Game Studios and popular third party developers like Gameloft, THQ, and Namco Bandai.  Microsoft promises that new titles will be added to the collection on a weekly basis once the platform is officially up and running.  Of the limited number of games previewed, it was  Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst (from MGS) that really impressed.  The tower defense game will use Bing Maps to present a bunch of baddies marching down real streets in your neighborhood.  You can use pinch-to-zoom, screen rotation, and finger tracking to guide the game.  Gameloft will bring Splinter Cell: Conviction, Let’s Golf 2, Earthworm Jim, Assassin’s Creed, and The Oregon Trail; Glu Mobile is working on Guitar Hero 5; Konami’s got Frogger and Castlevania; and Microsoft Game Studios will lead the way with Halo: Waypoint and The Harvest.  The launch lineup is exciting to say the least.

A couple side notes concerning the games.  (1) The full multiplayer experience you’ve come to know and love on the console will not be playable on phones at launch.  Only turn-based multiplayer games like Uno will be available to play over the Internet with friends.  (2) Every game will have a try-before-you-buy demo.  If you download a demo and decide you want to purchase a game, you’re only one click away from unlocking the game’s license to play to your hearts content.  (3) All WP7 Xbox Live games have a 200 gamerscore.  And remember, if you unlock an achievement on the phone this will be reflected on your gamerscore on the phone and the console.

Fellow gamers, Xbox Live on a mobile phone is coming soon.  Friends, messaging, achievements, avatars, exciting first and third party games.  Microsoft has all the ingredients to make Windows Phone 7 not only a competing but dominant force in mobile gaming.  Execution is key here.  If Microsoft can really pull off the Xbox Live experience on their new mobile platform with heavy developer support, an evolution of the mobile gaming landscape is on its way.  Apple be afraid, very afraid.

Look after the break for the full PR, which includes the list of launch titles, and an intro video.

[Via Xbox; Engadget; Gizmodo] Continue reading Xbox Live on Windows Phone 7 detailed →

Dania Ramirez graces this month’s Maxim

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Dominican actress Dania Ramirez has had roles in The Sopranos and X-Men: The Last Stand, but you probably know her better as Maya from NBC’s Heroes and most recently Turtle’s squeeze Alex on Entourage.  Though she’s been featured in Maxim before, this is her first time gracing the cover with her stunning exotic beauty.  Enough words..I’m going to let you jump right to the spread.  Look below for two photo galleries.  The first includes pictures from this month’s cover shoot, the second contains images from her 2008 feature.  Bonus!  Check out the video below to go behind-the-scenes with Dania on her photoshoot.  Aaand, you’re welcome.


1 2

[Via Maxim, here & here; 2dopeboyz, here & here]

Jed Whedon’s debut album “History of Forgotten Things” out now

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Jed Whedon, the man behind all the catchy tunes from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, released his very first album unto the world on August 10.  Hopefully you previewed three tracks from the album History of Forgotten Things when I shared them with you a few weeks ago.  If you did you would know that the album has no connection to his cheery, catchy hits from Dr.H.  (Except for the fact that Felicia Day lends background vocals and violin strings to a number of tracks.)  Instead it takes a more personal, grounded journey that covers many bases ranging from traumatic experiences to character-study songs.  In a humorous interview led by his brother Joss, he listed Paul Simon, Brian Eno, Jane’s Addiction, and Pink Floyd as influences on the record, categorized the album as “alternative/singer-songwriter/ambient/rock”, explained that the cohesive theme is nostalgia, and talked about the nature of the album title:

“The title comes from a few things — the terrifying feeling that we are forgetting our life as it rolls along. My obsession with all the history that was never documented (though in the digital age, that may be over). As well as the sensation that history can give you. A feeling that is indescribable. That feeling of connection through the ages. It is related to nostalgia. Sometimes, when I pass through a town I have never seen before, I long to not only live there, but to have lived there my whole life; to be nostalgic for it. I get the same feeling from history. I yearn to have lived during all those times. And, of course, in the future.”

Jed plans to continue his music career by releasing some EPs “soon” and another album “in the future.”  “But first”, he says, “I am going to start fleshing out some DH2 stuff.”  You hear that, Dr.H fans?  The sequel really is being worked on!  Too bad Joss is busy working on other projects at the moment (ahem–The Avengers).

History of Forgotten Things is available to download at the iTunes Store.  So stop reading this and listen to it right now.

Star Wars coming to Blu-ray in 2011

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At this year’s Star Wars Celebration V, George Lucas himself was on hand to announce that the entire Star Wars saga is coming to Blu-ray in Fall 2011.  Here’s what you can expect from the box set:

The Star Wars Blu-ray Box Set will feature all six live-action Star Wars feature films utilizing the highest possible picture and audio presentation, along with extensive special features – including documentaries, vintage behind-the-scenes moments, interviews, retrospectives and never-before-seen footage from the Lucasfilm archives.

In an interview with The New York Times, Lucas said that the first three original Star Wars films (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi) included in the Blu-ray box set will be the re-released special edition versions of the films that were digitally restored a number of years back.  To release the original versions of these films on Blu-ray would be too costly, Lucas explained.  Feeling down about this last bit of news?  Well I have just the thing to cheer you up again.  Sitting after the break is a “missing lightsaber scene” from Return of the Jedi!

The press release (also after the break) does not specify price, a hard release date, and if movies will be available to purchase individually on Blu-ray.

[Via Engadget; NYT] Continue reading Star Wars coming to Blu-ray in 2011 →

Game trailer: BioShock Infinite

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Three years after the release of the original BioShock developer Irrational Games is back with a brand new game called BioShock Infinite.  Infinite (set in the year 1912) serves as a sequel to the 2007 critically acclaimed horror first-person shooter (which was set in the 1960s).  It takes the player out of the underwater city of Rapture and into a fantastical city-in-the-sky named Columbia.  You play as Booker DeWitt and your assignment is to find an abducted women Elizabeth and then work with her to escape Columbia.  As you can see in the trailer, the Big Daddies look, erm, a bit primitive.  (Update: It’s been confirmed that the machine with big hands is not a Big Daddy..then what the heck is it!?)  Lead designer Ken Levine explains that although Infinite is an extension of the BioShock franchise, the game clearly sets itself apart from the previous BioShock games; the environment is not the only difference.  Though he does not go into much detail about the gameplay specifics, you should head over to Joystiq to read (or watch) an informative interview with Levine.  BioShock Infinite plans to release sometime in 2012.  And I…can’t…wait.

[Via Joystiq]

id’s Carmack to bring graphics-heavy 60fps game to the iPhone

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At this year’s QuakeCon in Dallas, Texas id Software co-founder John Carmack revealed that he’s bringing Rage (a first-person shooter that wowed critics at E3) to the iPhone.  With the announcement came a very brief tech demo for those in attendence.  Get this: the game will run at 60 frames-per-second!  All of the lighting, texture, and detail look phenomenal.  This game is basically gonna blow away the App Store games competition.  What started as an experiment on the Nintendo Wii quickly became an app for the iOS platform, according to Carmack.  About two years ago Carmack stated that the iPhone is “more powerful than a Nintendo DS and PSP combined” and today he is backing that up with this impressive tech demo (it’s embedded above).  He says that the demo was running off an iPhone 4 and that the game will run fine on the iPhone 3G and feel best on the iPad (thanks to the larger display).  He promises that Rage for iOS will be released this year, before the game drops on major consoles sometime in 2011.  It’s about time these games-on-the-go got beefier, more graphically intense, and exciting, wouldn’t you say?

[Via Joystiq]

Google intros Voice Actions, Chrome to Phone; updates Gmail UI and contacts section, enables multiple account sign-in

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On Thursday Google introduced a new app for Android devices called Voice Actions.  “Voice Actions are a series of spoken commands that let you control your phone using your voice.”  Sounds simple and yet it is extremely helpful.  There are a total of twelve voice actions you can perform by speaking into the device’s mic.  Including the already implemented method of performing a Google search with your voice, other actions include:

  • send text to [contact] [message]
  • listen to [artist/song/album]
  • call [business]
  • call [contact]
  • send email to [contact] [message]
  • go to [website]
  • note to self [note]
  • navigate to [location/business name]
  • directions to [location/business name]
  • map of [location]
  • set alarim for [time]

    • Here’s how a number of them work.  You can complete a text message or email without touching the (physical or on-screen) keyboard simply by saying “send text to Bill Will” or “send email to Bill Will” respectively.  The phone will take a second to understand your speech input and then present your message all ready for delivery.  Tapping send will shoot your message off.  Speak and send, it’s that simple.  Voice actions extend beyond text messaging and emailing.  Say there’s a restaurant you want to call to make reservations for dinner.  You know the name and location of the restaurant, but you don’t have the business’ phone number handy.  You could bring up the browser and find the number that way, but with voice actions you can more quickly and efficiently obtain and dial the restaurant’s number.  The voice action “Call Sarabeth’s in NYC” will prompt your device to quickly search the Internet (using Google Maps)  for the restaurant’s phone number by pinging the name and specific location.  Within seconds of your voice action you’ll hear your phone ringing the restaurant or place of business.  You can even use voice actions to find and listen to music.  When you say “Listen to The Decemberists” your phone will search across your music library and any number of related apps (Pandora, last.fm, etc.) to start playing music from that particular band.  “Note to self”, as cliche as it sounds, serves as another interesting voice action that’ll likely come in handy from time to time.

    Voice Actions require Android 2.2 (Froyo) and they are currently available for U.S. English speakers only.  Droid 2 owners will find the app preinstalled on their device.  If you have an Android 2.2 device, search ‘Voice Search’ in the Android Market to find the free download.

    Google also announced Chrome to Phone, a Chrome browser extention and Android app that communicate with each other to send browser-specific information from your desktop to your phone.  Once you have Chrome to Phone installed on your desktop and phone, you can send websites, directions, and phone numbers from your desktop Chrome browser to your Android device.  For example, say you’re catching up on national news at The New York Times website but you are interuppted and forced to leave home.  Simply tap the new phone icon located at the top right corner of your Chrome browser window and the website will appear on your Android phone.  Now let’s say you are planning a road trip using Google Maps in Chrome.  Instead of wasting paper by printing out the directions, now you can send the directions from your desktop to your phone.  The instant transfer will automatically open up the Google Maps app on your phone and you’re just a tap away from initiating a Google Maps Navigation route using the transferred location information.  One more example.  You want to make a reservation at Sarabeth’s in NYC and you found the restaurant’s phone number on your desktop.  Ready to make the call?  Highlight the phone number, tap the new phone button in Chrome, and the transfer will bring up your phone’s dialer prepopulated with the restaurant’s number.

    The Google Chrome to Phone Extention is available (in English only) to download today.  The free Chrome to Phone app requires Android 2.2 (Froyo) and can be found in the Android Market by searching ‘Chrome to Phone.’

    Look after the break to learn about Gmail’s latest updates.  There you’ll also find brief video demonstrations for Voice Actions and Chrome to Phone. Continue reading Google intros Voice Actions, Chrome to Phone; updates Gmail UI and contacts section, enables multiple account sign-in →

    Can you guess the title of Weezer’s next album?

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    That’s right–it’s Hurley!  In an interview with Spinner Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo explained where the idea of having Lost‘s Jorge Garcia cover their next LP:

    “We struggled super hard trying to come up with an album title, trying to find some kind of phrase that summed up the whole aesthetic behind the album: ‘Heavy Mental,’ ‘Smaller Than Life.’  I was coming up with all kinds of stuff, but ultimately, we just went with some random word that doesn’t really have anything to do with anything.  I just loved this photo of Jorge Garcia — it just had this amazing vibe.  We didn’t want to do a fourth self-titled record and we knew people would refer to it as ‘the Hurley record’ even if we left it without that title, so we just called it ‘Hurley.’  No words are on the cover because all we wanted was his amazing face.”

    Although he “really like[s] the show” Cuomo confesses there’s no connection between Lost and the next collection of music from Weezer.  Oh well…the cover rocks!  Hurley releases September 14.

    [Via Spinner; Pitchfork]