Euxinus

Steam Box dreamers take note, our buddies at Engadget recently went hands on with Gigabyte's Brix gaming PC. Gigabyte's Brix line, if you haven't heard, crams a whole PC into a case roughly the size of a nice tiramisu (i.e. a cube about 4.5 inches wide). The diminutive machine packs Intel's new Haswell processor and, more importantly, Iris Pro integrated graphics. Connectivity includes 4 USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, Ethernet, Bluetooth 4.0, built-in WiFi and a headphone jack.

Engadget tried out Grid 2, which played smoothly in 1080p. The lil' 'puter isn't going to outperform a system with a dedicated GPU, but it sounds impressive nonetheless. The PC has no release date just yet, but it's expected to sell for $500. That comes with a hefty caveat, however: you'll have to provide your own RAM, 2.5-inch hard drive and operating system.

Gigabyte shows off tiny, adorable Brix gaming PC originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 13 Sep 2013 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of the leading lights of the science fiction world, editor and author Frederik Pohl, passed away this weekend after a career that defined the genre for decades.

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China's building boom has created a ton of abandoned cities and massive ruins — most of which are brand new, and have never had people living in them. Here are the deserted Chinese cities, mostly built in the last 10 years, which could be sets for your next dystopian movie.

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There are a few reasons Sepulchre may be the perfect game to start off your week:

1. It's a horror point-and-click from Owl Cave, the developers of the intensely emotional, four-star adventure, Richard & Alice
2. It takes place on a train, starring a curious museum curator
3. It's short
4. It's free

The two-man development team at Owl Cave proved itself with Richard & Alice, crafting a story of loss and survival that transcended the game's pixelated art style. Sepulchre is an adventure short, clocking in at under two hours of playtime, and it's a subtle brand of horror game, Owl Cave says: There are no jump-scare moments, but it's consistently eerie and contains moments of unexplainable, train-based unease.

Sepulchre is out now for PC only, in the free version or a $3 Special Edition that includes the game, soundtrack, two wallpapers and a digital copy of Bright Lights and Glass Houses, a collection of short horror stories from Owl Cave writer Ashton Raze. Buy it (or just play it) here.

Sepulchre, a free indie horror game from Richard & Alice devs originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 02 Sep 2013 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shades Of Sanity is a forthcoming “psychological horror game”, which means that rather than being a straight up BOO, YOU’RE DEAD action horror game, you face creepy creepy environments and unreliable experiences of MADNESS. It’s a sort of Gone Home with serious derangement. The developers explain: “With only limited meds to cope Joe explores the house, learning that each previous resident is somehow connected to him, and each has met a horrible fate. Eventually his meds run out and you are left with primitive methods to cope with the strange and surreal visions, hoping that if you close your eyes or look away they’ll disappear. But even innocent scenes could be feeding a deeper delusion.” Yikes!

A new trailer shows off the early part of the game, below.
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There is a great, undiscovered potential in virtual reality development. Sure, you can create lifelike virtual worlds, but you can also make players sick. Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey and VP of product Nate Mitchell hosted a panel at GDC Europe last week, instructing developers on how to avoid the VR development pitfalls that make players uncomfortable. It was a lovely service for VR developers, but we saw a much greater opportunity. Inadvertently, the panel explained how to make players as queasy and uncomfortable as possible.

And so, we now present the VR developer's guide to manipulating your players right down to the vestibular level. Just follow these tips and your players will be tossing their cookies in minutes.

Note: If you'd rather not make your players horribly ill and angry, just do the opposite of everything below.

Continue reading How to make players sick in your virtual reality game

How to make players sick in your virtual reality game originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 30 Aug 2013 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Overhaul Games' rejuvenated Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition will be available for PC and Macs on November 15, the company announced today on its official forums. Android tablet and iPad versions "will follow soon afterwards." Meanwhile, the Mac and PC versions are already available for pre-purchase at $24.95 through Beamdog.

Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition includes recreations of the original Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn and its expansion pack, Throne of Bhaal. Additionally, four new characters (and their associated quests) are included in the PC/Mac releases, but iOS/Android users will need to download this content as DLC. Whether this DLC comes at a price, however, was not specified, but we're checking.

Update: Beamdog's Trent Oster has informed us that these four characters will be paid DLC on the mobile versions, but that the iOS/Android releases of the game will have a lower cost of entry as a result.

Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition back on track for PC, Mac originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 30 Aug 2013 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Precio: 59.95$
Empresa: Fantasy Flight Games
FFG anuncia un Eldritch Horror, un nuevo juego de misterio y terror global. Los investigadores deberán de recorrer el globo terrestre en su búsqueda para evitar la perdición de toda la humanidad.

Un juego totalmente cooperativo, con una dificultad variable a escoger durante la preparación del juego y que promete una inmersión narrativa

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Crispian Jago represents the Doctor's multi-threaded history as a Tube map, with one transit line for each of the eleven doctors, and the various characters and aliens the Doctor encounters as stops. Daleks are pretty much the ultimate cosmic transfer station.

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Harebrained have updated with news of what’s happening following the launch of Shadowrun Returns, and the arrival of the first patch. The Berlin campaign, which will feature a new story mission free to Kickstarter backers, and at an unannounced price for standard purchasers, is now set to arrive in October. The Berlin campaign will also introduce a completely new scenery set for the editor: “Development of Berlin art is already underway, and our design team is also starting to prototype gameplay and mission ideas for the Berlin campaign.”

The post also comes with news of a Linux release, but no time-frame for its arrival: “The editor is now compiling in Linux, but unfortunately crashes when trying to load scenes. We’re confident we can work through the various Linux-related issues, but it is going to take some time to wrangle them into submission.” Sounds like progress, at least.

BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea will take players in a bathysphere back to the emerald city of Rapture for a noir-styled adventure. The second and third pieces of downloadable content (DL-Sea) for Infinite are a far more narrative experience than today's Clash in the Clouds.

The first episode places Infinite protagonists Booker and Elizabeth in Rapture, the underwater city Andrew Ryan built so kindly in the original BioShock, around 1958, two year before the fall. Players will get to experience the city in a time before it became the leaky dream under the sea, with new weapons, new "Plasmids/Vigors," tears, Big Daddies and... apparently some sky-lines.

The second episode will have players taking on the role of Elizabeth. She won't be the bullet-absorbing tank that Booker DeWitt is, as Irrational Studios head Ken Levine explained it'll be a different type of experience. The two packs have been priced at $14.99 apiece (included in the BioShock Infinite Season Pass) with more details and a release date coming soon.

BioShock Infinite returns to Rapture in Burial at Sea originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 30 Jul 2013 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Con la muerte de Google Reader surgieron muchas alternativas dispuestas a sustituirle. Una de las más importantes, The Old Reader, hace unos días anunciaba su cierre desbordada por los nuevos usuarios. Ahora, gracias a una "entidad corporativa" anónima, revive y anuncia mejoras.

Sólo han pasado un par de días desde que The Old Reader anunciaba que cerraría su versión pública al verse desbordados por la cantidad de cuentas que se estaban activando. Y apareció el milagro: The Old Reader permanece abierto al público gracias a un equipo más grande y "significativamente más" recursos, las dos cosas gracias a una "entidad corporativa" estadounidense.

La muerte de Google Reader a principios del mes de julio supuso un drama para todos los que éramos usuarios de la plataforma. Rápidamente surgieron algunas alternativas dispuestas a reemplazar el servicio de Google. The Old reader, junto a Feedly, fue una de las plataformas que más usuarios arrastró y ese fue, al parecer, uno de los motivos que propició la noticia de su cierre.

Se desconocen los detalles sobre esa "entidad corporativa" generosa, lo único que se sabe es que fue anunciado por un tal "Ben Wolf", quien promete que su equipo está compuesto por "grandes fans y usuarios" de The Old Reader, los cuales quieren ayudar a que "crezca y mejore" en los próximos años. Esas mejoras podrían empezar a conocerse en las próximas semanas.

Es una buena noticia para todos los usuarios de la plataforma. La verdad, cuando se anunció la muerte de Google Reader empecé a buscar un reemplazo y The Old Reader fue una de las alternativas que rápidamente captó mi atención. Su interfaz minimalista la hace muy agradable e ideal para evitar distracciones mientras consultas las novedades de tus RSS favoritos. Lo que hizo que finalmente me decantara por Feedly fue que ofrecía un proceso de migración desde Google Reader muy sencillo, y sobre todo, su presencia en aplicaciones de terceros. Esperemos que el nuevo equipo y los recursos que ahora están destinados a The Old Reader ayuden a que ésta se conecte con más aplicaciones y servicios, convirtiéndola así en una candidata a competir contra Feedly.

Time to catch up with Matt Damon and the rest of the huddled masses, with four clips from Neill Blomkamp's Elysium. Each new bit of footage is loaded up with action, and light on everything else. Could this be the last great action blockbuster of the summer?

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Check out a batch of S.H.I.E.L.D. promos, full of new Agent Coulsony footage. Is this the most anticipated new television series of the fall? Now that it has a Firefly alum and Cobie Smulders joining the cast, there's no stopping this show.

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Version 3.0 of Super Mario Bros. Crossover, a cross between traditional Mario levels and characters from non-Mario games, launched this week.

The update incorporates 192 levels, difficulty-based map selection, and 10 central characters from classic series like Mega Man and Ninja Gaiden. Each character can be re-skinned with a library of sprites from their past along with a few surprise inclusions. You can pummel goombas to death with the ice rod as the old man from Zelda 1, for example.

The conclusion of Version 3.0 allows Exploding Rabbit to pursue development of Super Retro Squad, what they describe as "a combination between Super Mario World, Mega Man X, and Super Mario Bros. Crossover."

Their previous Kickstarter campaign only drew in enough funding for Director Jay Pavlina to work full-time on the game, however, so they've launched a new fundraising effort. Considering they've released three versions of Super Mario Bros. Crossover for free, it'd be awful reasonable for fans of that project to help them out.

Super Mario Bros. Crossover 3.0 gets Ninja Gaiden in your goombas originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 02 Aug 2013 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reddit recently asked their users, "What's the best horror story you can come up with in two sentences?" And their responses were terrifying! Who knew we could be so scared by such small stories? It's absolutely brilliant and here are a few of our favorites.

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Here is the first meaty chunk from the Kick-Ass sequel — showing Hit Girl in her new home, with her new dad, and new bag of tricks. When will that murderous scamp quit? Plus get a good look at Jim Carrey's character, from before he disowned the whole franchise.

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The London Fog, one of the attractions of London in the early 20th century, was actually a deadly smog. It covered the city for 90 days a year. Here are incredible images of this beautiful but menacing haze.

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Legendary film composer John Williams, the man behind the music for all six Star Wars films and master of the science fictional leitmotif, will return to score Star Wars: Episode VII! Here's what he has to say about his return to the Star Wars universe – including his thoughts on director J.J. Abrams.

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Wayward Manor is the first game from acclaimed author Neil Gaiman, whose resume includes classics such as American Gods, The Sandman and Coraline, in addition to a myriad of other dark, whimsical sundries. Expected in the fall of this year on PC, Mac and "tablets," the game is being produced in conjunction with The Odd Gentlemen, a developer Gaiman chose for its ability to balance the cartoonish and the macabre.

While no gameplay footage is shown in the introduction trailer, Gaiman does lay down Wayward Manor's premise: There is a house in 1920's New England, and it is the player's responsibility as its deceased occupant to frighten the Manor's new, still living tenants away.

Pre-orders both physical and digital are available on the game's official site, in addition to various merchandise, tickets to Wayward Manor's launch party and a $10,000 dinner with Gaiman, which he describes as "the single spookiest dinner anybody has ever had ... in Los Angeles."

We're keeping our fingers crossed for some heavy Amanda Palmer involvement in the game's soundtrack.

Neil Gaiman enters gaming space with 'Wayward Manor' originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 25 Jul 2013 21:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After the massive Marvel panel where James Gunn and the Guardians of the Galaxy blew the walls off Hall H, a collection of actual movie props were put on display at the Marvel booth. We've got a collection of high-res images that help us visualize the vibe of the live-action adaptation of this comic. Check it out.

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When Google introduced the new tabbed interface for Gmail, it also brought along some new ads under the Promotions tab.

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If you've been suffering from Kick-Ass fatigue, or just had the suspicion that the sequel was going to suck, remember that what we've been getting recently are regular trailers. This new, incredibly R-rated Kick-Ass 2 trailer from Comic-Con, on the other hand, goes a long way in making the movie seem worth seeing again.

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Film director Zack Snyder caused quite a stir at the Comic-Con International panel in San Diego this Saturday morning, with the logo above, announcing that Bataman will be featured in the sequel to his Man of Steel, set for release in 2015.

Not many details have been revealed about the project. What's known is that Henry Cavill will be reprising the role as the caped guardian of Metropolis, but no comments were made about who will play the Dark Knight. It iss unlikely Christian Bale will step back into the bat suit, as the actor has indicated publicly that he has moved on from his days as Bruce Wayne.

Io9

Dragon Age: Inquisition has pretty much stayed entirely under wraps except in order to briefly emerge and switch out its numerical nametag for a subtitled one. Also, it did the whole razzle-dazzle E3 trailer thing, but only the maddest of fans managed to decipher much from its cinema-tastic showing. For now, then, all we can do is snatch up whatever scraps might fall from BioWare’s silently slithering brood. But how? And where? Well, by offering OXM as bait to the RPG behemoth’s slavering jaws at PAX Australia, of course.

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Los fans de la serie Firefly están de enhorabuena, en 2014 podrán rememorar las aventuras de los protagonistas de esta serie de ciencia-ficción gracias al lanzamiento de un videojuego oficial que llegará para dispositivos iOS y Android.

Los aficionados a la ciencia-ficción recordarán, seguramente, la serie Firefly; una producción del año 2002 que llegó de la mano de Joss Whedon y que a pesar que solamente tuvo una temporada, se ha convertido en una serie de culto. Tras la cancelación de la serie y su éxito al lanzarse en DVD, Firefly tuvo continuidad en forma de película (Serenity), varios cortometrajes y también en la edición de algunos cómics editados por Dark Horse Comics y el propio Joss Whedon; una llama que se ha mantenido viva y que también se materializará en forma de videojuego. Según se ha anunciado en la Comic-Con de San Diego, el próximo año se lanzará un videojuego de Firefly para dispositivos móviles iOS y Android.

Concretamente, durante el verano de 2014 este videojuego para plataformas móviles verá la luz para el deleite de los aficionados a esta serie de ciencia-ficción y convirtiéndose en el primer videojuego oficial de la serie creada por Josh Whedon.

El videojuego de Firefly se ha concebido como un juego online que aún está en desarrollo y se lanzará inicialmente para iOS y Android aunque la idea es que se amplíe el número de plataformas en las que el juego tendré presencia. El usuario se adentrará en un universo virtual en el que podrá interactuar con otros usuarios de la plataforma y asumirá el rol de capitán de una nave al igual que el protagonista de la serie original y la película. Como capitanes de una nave, los usuarios tendrán que crear su tripulación, mejorar la dotación de su nave para prepararla cara a realizar exploraciones y adentrarse dentro del universo que recreaba esta serie. Evidentemente, al interactuar con otros usuarios se potenciarán las funcionalidades sociales con la idea de unir a los fans de la serie y generar una comunidad alrededor del juego.

Fox Digital Entertaiment será la responsable de operar el juego junto a QMX Interactive y Spark Plug Games junto a QMX se están encargando de los desarrollos que, como nos podemos imaginar, aún siguen en curso puesto que queda un año para el lanzamiento oficial del videojuego de Firefly.

Mientras la fecha llega, QMX ha lanzado una web en la que los usuarios se pueden registrar con antelación y también podrán echar un ojo al tráiler oficial del juego.

This week marks the release of one of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's most ambitious user-created mods to date, adding over 20 hours of unique content to Bethesda's lengthy quest.

Alexander J. Velicky's "Falskaar" mod, available for download from Skyrim Nexus, adds a neighboring continent to Skyrim's map. Approximately one-third the size of Skyrim's existing world, Falskaar features 9 new storyline quests and 17 sidequests, and includes recorded dialogue from a cast of more than 30 volunteer voice actors.

PC Gamer reports that Velicky produced the mod in the hopes of landing a job at Skyrim developer Bethesda, and spent more than 2,000 hours working on the project over the last year. "The best way to show Bethesda Game Studios that I want a job there and should be hired is to create content that meets the standards of their incredible development team," Velicky said.

Job-seeking 19-year-old produces incredible Skyrim mod originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just before the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Japan, a report went out to people at the highest levels of power. It predicted an arms race, a policy of mutually assured destruction, and it recommended that we keep the bomb secret. What if we had?

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From Vice:

The Satanic Temple, a burgeoning community of worship devoted to the Dark Lord, has performed a “Pink Mass” over the grave of Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps Jr.’s mother. The Pink Mass is a Satanic ritual performed after death that turns the deceased's straight spirit into a homo one—it’s not unlike the Mormon practice of baptizing the dead, only much gayer.

On Sunday the Satanic Temple, which first came into the national spotlight last January when the organization announced its support for Florida Governor Rick Scott, went to the Phelps family graveyard in Mississippi to perform the ritual. (Two Pink Masses were performed, one with a female couple and another with men.)

The Raspberry Pi is a fantastic little low-powered device that can do all sorts of things, and we've certainly seen our share of video game related projects for it. This one, from Instructables user Zaqq, takes it above and beyond, and turns the Pi into a completely portable retro game center.

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