firehose

When you consider that I’m spending a good portion of every week recapping the ’90s X-Men cartoon, you might think that I’d have my fill of ’90s mutant nostalgia, but that is definitely not the case. If anything, going back through that show has made me want to go back and revisit that stuff even more. That’s why I went out a few days ago and grabbed one of the most treasured artifacts of my childhood: the four-part X-Men Collector’s Edition comics released in 1993 and sold at Pizza Hut.

Seriously, you guys. There was a time in this country when you could go out and get a pizza and comic books about the X-Men jacking into cyberspace in the same building. If we want to make America great again, I suggest we start there.

I don’t know if it was just me or if it was something common to everyone who was eleven years old in 1993, but I could not have been more excited at the idea of the comic books and pizza coming together to provide me with everything I wanted in the world. And for the record, that excitement at those two would continue at pretty much the same level of intensity for the next 20 years, and doesn’t really show any signs of stopping now.

What I’m getting at here is that in the summer of ’93, these weren’t just my favorite comics, they were quite possibly my favorite things in the entire world. They’re kind of perfect in a way, with Professional Comic Book Writer Scott Lobdell splitting the team into pairs so that they can chatter on about their powers while dealing with villains whose appearances may or may not make any sense at all and wrapping it up in a goofy mystery about the real mastermind behind it all, and I still think they’re a lot of fun. But back then?

I used to iron these comics after I read them.

Yeah. Really. With a hot iron. Like you would use on clothing. There are like twenty-six different ways that this is the dumbest thing I have done in a lifetime of reading comics, but that’s how swept up I was in both loving these things and keeping them in Mint Condition so as to not lose their value as Collector’s Editions. Fortunately, I somehow managed to avoid becoming the subject of a South Carolina newspaper headline reading “BOY, 11, BURNS DOWN HOUSE; CITES SATANIC ‘WOLVERINE’ COMIC-BOOK CHARACTER AS CAUSE.”

I liked the whole story, but looking back, the best issue by far is the climax. That might sound weird coming from me since it’s the one starring Cyclops and Bishop and not the one where Wolverine stands on top of a fighter jet in mid-flight while trying to stab a dinosaur man, and believe me, I’m surprised too. It’s not that PCBW Lobdell goes out of his way to make Cyclops less of a grumpy sack of doorknobs than he is in other X-Men stories. In fact, he opens the series with a shot that ranks right up there with X-Men #1′s “BACK OFF, WOLVERINE!” as the scond-most Cyclops panel of all time:

And we know that that’s the second-most Cyclops panel of all time because in #4, Lobdell and artists Mike Harris and Harry Candelario open with what is unquestionably the most Cyclops panel of all time:

That’s right, Jubilee! There’s nothing “cool” about having my psychic wife transport a gunfighter from the future and me into a digital world of danger and adventure! And if saying that makes me “lame,” then I guess I’m just a big “lame!”

Oh, Cyclops. Of all the Cyclopses in the world, you’re the Cyclopsest.

So after explaining to his teammates, and the reader, that nothing he is about to do could possibly be considered “Cool,” Cyclops heads into cyberspace with Bishop, courtesy of Jean’s powers. The reason they’re doing all of this is that something’s gone wrong with Cerebro, and since it’s the most vital tool in what Mr. Lucas Bishop refers to as “our goal of global harmony between humans and mutants,” they’ve all had to scramble for replacement parts. Rogue and Gambit had to take their heavily accented flirting into the Danger Room, which of course went crazy and tried to kill them with Sentinels, Wolverine and Jubilee flew to the Savage Land to pick up some vibranium, Beast and Storm went to Muir Island to get an antivirus program and fought Magneto, and now Cyclops and Bishop have to go into cyberspace.

Because that’s where the files are. Inside the computer.

Incidentally, I think it’s a little weird that Jean drops them 150 feet from where they need to be, but I suppose that’s what you get for having your Matrix operated by someone whose powers have nothing to do with computers or technology. But it does give Cyclops and Bishop time to have the standard “if you die in a computer, you die in real life, but don’t worry, our powers and weapons still work exactly the same as they do in the real world” conversation as they mosey on over. And that’s when things start to get even better:

ARCADE HAS ENTERED THE VIDEO AGE.

Long-time CA readers will recall that Arcade is one of my all-time favorite villains, and these comics came out right around the time that I read the story that made me a fan, the Claremont/Byrne classic from Uncanny X-Men #123-124. Clearly, PCBW Scott Lobdell was angling directly for the Chris Sims market. And he got it, especially when Arcade’s Giant Digital Head revealed its master plan: Making the X-Men… fight the X-Men.

Yes, not only do you get pizza and the X-Men and Arcade, but you also get digital copies of the X-Men trying to murder Cyclops. There’s nothing that isn’t “cool” about that combination.

Eventually, Cyclops tricks the FauX-Men into beating up on Bishop, which is no easy feat since they’re undoubtedly lining up to paste him one, and therein lies his master plan. Bishop, whose mutant powers still work in Cyberspace, is able to absorb all the (cyber) energy shot at him by the “cyber icon” versions of Gambit and Jubilee, and then uses it to project (cyber) energy back at them, thus killing the computer virus.

Look. I know this might seem silly in our strange 21st century world where we all carry around computers in our pockets and use it for whatever the hell “Angry Birds” is, but this was 1993. There’s a good chance that Scott Lobdell had never used or seen a computer.

Once that problem is finally dealt with, we finally learn who the actual mastermind was: Professor X, who set everything up as a challenge to his students to see how well they dealt with pressure. Because this was the only situation in which the X-Men could ever be seen acting under pressure, as opposed to, you know, every single other day of their lives. Also, it’s worth noting that the reveal is pretty much made apparent when Professor X excuses himself as soon as the action starts and then a suspiciously bald silhouette shows up muttering to itself at the end.

But hey, it’s a comic for twelve year-olds. Or, you know, very sophisticated eleven year-olds.

An e-mail app recently acquired by Dropbox contains a security bug that opens iPhone and iPad users to a series of potentially serious attacks, a security researcher warned.

In a blog post published Wednesday, Michael Spagnuolo of Italy said that Mailbox for iOS will execute any JavaScript code embedded in the body of an HTML-formatted e-mail. A video shows how the bug can be exploited to open iOS apps without user prompting, simply by viewing a booby-trapped message. His post said the damage could be much more severe.

"This is bad for security and privacy, because it allows advanced spam techniques, tracking of user actions, hijacking the user by just opening an e-mail, and, using an [exploitation] framework, potentially much worse things," Spagnuolo wrote. In the past, the researcher has been credited with finding security vulnerabilities in Google, eBay and Nokia products or services.

Google's same-day delivery shopping service is making its first big expansion. All residents of San Francisco, San Jose, and the Peninsula will now be able to start using the online store, opening it up from just the collection of testers who have been using it since its announcement in March. The service allows shoppers to order from both local and chain retailers that have signed up with Google Shopping Express, all of which offer their products at the same prices in stores and online. Though Google's offering six months of free delivery, it says that it'll begin charging for deliveries after that period.

Though Google Shopping Express is still limited in scope, same-day delivery is quickly becoming a heated market. Amazon, eBay, and Walmart — among others — have all been trying to make a quick delivery services work in various test markets, most of which have started in the decidedly tech-friendly San Francisco. This is hardly the beginning though for these same-day services: making quick delivery work was a dream of the dot-com boom that never became a sustainable reality. Tellingly enough, one of the biggest dot-com failures, Kozmo, was a one-hour delivery service, and it's supposedly now making a return. Now that established retailers and web giants are making a go at it though, perhaps the dream will have a better chance of success.

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Developer Sucker Punch is going to great lengths to ensure its next-gen debut, Infamous: Second Son for PlayStation 4, believably portrays its hometown of Seattle, Wash. From the locally sourced sounds of birds chirping to the inclusion of recognizable Seattle landmarks (the Space Needle, the monorail, an iconic car wash), there's a carefully manufactured sense of place in Second Son's Seattle.

As open-world superhero playgrounds go, Sucker Punch is focused on recreating its native city with a level of detail that borders on obsessive.

"You can see it when you walk around the streets of both the real city and our city in Second Son that they share [the same] identity," said Nate Fox, Infamous: Second Son game director. "And because it feels real, when you add in superhuman powers, you believe that they're real as well. And that's the thing — powers are why you're playing the game, not to take a trip to Seattle.

"When going to the PS4, we knew we would have the power to make a city that felt totally real"

"It's my home, but it's a good place to have a superhuman adventure. We were really excited to make really cool looking rain-slick pavement and weather effects that would look awesome."

During a recent visit to Sucker Punch's growing studio, the developer offered us a behind the scenes look at Infamous: Second Son, a game built on next-generation technology and starring an all-new hero.

Sucker Punch's version of Seattle is a mix of painstakingly authentic and referential — the developer licensed logos and signs from regional businesses, like the locally famous Elephant Car Wash. It features a faithful recreation of the city's Space Needle, its monorail system and locations like Pioneer Square. Mt. Rainier looms in the distance. Even Sucker Punch's own Seattle-based studio is hidden somewhere in the game.

"We chose to set the game in Seattle because, well, we live here," said Fox. "I look at the Space Needle everyday. And when going to the PlayStation 4, we knew we would have the power to make a city that felt totally real."

Fox said the developer wanted to explore the real Seattle, armed with audio recorders and cameras, to accurately recreate their hometown. The game's city is bordered by forests that feature regionally accurate flora, including evergreens modeled by ex-landscapers, populated by local fauna. The chirps players will hear in Second Son's woods include the calls of Seattle-area robins.

Complementing Second Son's Seattle are original flavors based on local cultural icons, which can be seen in the coffee shop chains Squatch Brew and Latte Owl Coffee. (No Starbucks, though.)

Game designer Jaime Griesemer calls the actual layout of Sucker Punch's in-game Seattle an "abstraction" of the real thing, but more grounded than the fictional cities of Empire City and New Marais of past Infamous games. "We can do a lot more nuanced portrait of the city in Second Son," he said. "Since Seattle is not laid out well for gameplay, we're more going for the vibe ... the mood of Seattle."

"Origin stories are the best part of superhero fiction"

New lighting and graphics technology power the game's hyper-real Seattle, helping to bring the neon lit city to life. Sucker Punch showed off new reflection technology that powers the way light bounces off cars and wet pavement. (Sliders in Second Son's graphics engine let designers choose just how wet they want their Seattle streets, from bone dry to damp to black mirror-like fully saturated. Rain, it seems, is as persistent in the new Infamous as it is in the real Seattle.)

The choice of Seattle as the playground of Infamous: Second Son also informed the design of its Native American protagonist, Delsin Rowe. Fox says the decision to feature a character of Native American descent was a product of the game's setting in the Pacific northwest — and its story.

"Native Americans are part of the population here, so ... why not choose this guy to be the hero?" Fox said. "He comes from a smaller town outside of Seattle and he becomes part of this classic adventure story. It's, you know, the call to adventure. I'd be lying if I said this wasn't a 'hero's journey' story."

Delsin's story represents a fresh start for the Infamous franchise, Griesemer said, calling it an opportunity to welcome a new audience to the series. That was a crucial change as the series makes the leap from PS3 to PS4.

"We want to make sure that it doesn't feel like [PlayStation 4 owners] are tuning in for the final season of some show that's been running for 15 years," he said. "We needed a new entry point, and Delsin was the first step for that."

Fox said the decision to leave Cole McGrath behind was "kind of a sad thing, but also great." It was also a choice players of Infamous 2 helped Sucker Punch make.

"We looked at the trophy data from Infamous 2 and in that game we gave players a choice if they wanted to heroically sacrifice Cole and kill him, or selfishly keep him alive at the expense of humanity," Fox said. "I'd been thinking that the next game would be one where he'd stayed alive. And when I wrote the endings, that's the one that had the coolest set up for another game.

"This is going to be a different group of gamers than have played Infamous and Infamous 2."

"But the vast majority of the people went for the sacrifice. We thought, well, in a game that has this strong connection to choice and consequence, that we'd honor that as a franchise. I'm glad we did it because ... origin stories are the best part of superhero fiction."

Griesemer said the decision to move on from Cole's story came fairly early in the design process.

"Maybe it had been suggested before," Griesemer explained, "but there was definitely a pre-production meeting where I said, 'I don't want to step on anybody's toes, but what if it's not Cole?' We were at the point in the project where we could just do whatever [we wanted]. As we thought about it and talked to Sony, it made more and more sense. It's going to be new hardware, a new platform and we're going to have a new audience. This is going to be a different group of gamers than have played Infamous and Infamous 2."

The new hero of Infamous 3, as it was known at the time, would require all-new superhuman powers. One of Delsin's abilities, the ability to draw gas from neon signs — like the one outside Second Son's dramatically different take on the Crocodile Cafe — helped push the next-gen lighting tech and vice versa.

"After we [chose to put the game in Seattle], we started thinking about some of the powers that Delsin might have and guess what, we have beautiful reflective streets," Fox said. "Let's get some neon in there, in part because they look rad in the city, and also because they're everywhere, so let's make this a source of power."

Delsin's other revealed power is based on smoke and cinder, allowing him to fly through the sky in short bursts, travel through ventilation shafts and, in battle, attack with a smoldering whip.

"When we were looking at what Infamous was," Griesemer said, "one of the things that had been a theme throughout the series and we wanted to continue was the idea of modern elemental powers."

Delsin's superpowers draw on less common elemental powers, or at least interesting variations on established versions of those superhuman abilities, some of which are informed by the game's setting in Seattle. Don't expect him to have ice or water-based powers — either too rare in the case of the former and too common in the latter — or one-to-one equivalents of Cole's power set. No coffee-based powers either. It's an element too common in Seattle, Griesemer joked.

Sucker Punch is keeping Delsin's other powers under wraps for now. It's also remaining tight-lipped about the impact moral choices — whether the new Infamous hero will opt for good or evil — will have on the game. Infamous: Second Son is a chance for the studio to tell a new origin story (in its hometown no less) and welcome a new audience to its superhero franchise, wielding that great power responsibly.

Major technical and mechanical failures in EVE Online have evolved into inherent and fundamental parts of the game through the problem-solving abilities of its user base, said Hilmar Veigar Petursson during today's DICE Europe event in London.

Throughout the game's early development Petursson went under cover in-game to better understand the play style of EVE's players, joining up with other users to mine their way through the universe while denying any direct relation to the studio behind the game.

"Why are so many people playing [Eve Online] when it is so obviously so broken?" he asked. He later found through his time undercover this was because of the social experience underpinning Eve world, adding that it's the mind of players that functions as an additional platform for the game.

Mining mechanics that went awry in-game thanks to development flaws were used to the advantage of clever players who discovered new ways of playing the game - ways that Petursson says the game was never intentional in the design.

According to Petursson, the designers of CCP are merely "custodians" of the game who work to develop its universe, while the value of the game is found in its players, in respect of others and trust in others: concepts that are "upholding the emotional foundation of the universe."

CCP is currently working to compile stories of players for linear media and will later bring that to television, in partnership with director Baltasar Kormakur.