Topics

106

Off Topic / Do you ever just.. think?

« on: September 25, 2012, 11:32:11 PM »

Have you ever sat down, listened to maybe some thought-provoking music and just ruminated? And if you do, what do you think about?

I'm just curious. I do it a lot, and I find it helps me find answers to questions or just relieve stress.

107

Games / EA shuts down PopCap Dublin, displaces 96 workers

« on: September 24, 2012, 07:32:29 PM »

This isn't surprising in the least.

Here's a quick recap:

• Last year, PopCap was bought out in a one billion dollar deal by EA (sounds incredibly familiar, doesn't it?).
• Only a year later, in August, 50 workers were laid off at PopCap's Seattle office. This was, according to John Vechey, co-founder of PopCap, "The decision to reorganise was 100 per cent made by us, with no pressure from EA." An evaluation period followed for PopCap Dublin.

And today, it lead to this. EA has now left 146 people out of jobs, some of which undoubtedly are now working at EA's European Customer Experience Center.

This makes me sick to my stomach.

EDIT: PopCap has not closed entirely. Their Seattle office is still up and running.

108

Off Topic / I've been selected to take the SAT early.

« on: September 19, 2012, 03:33:04 PM »

I got a letter today in sixth period from Duke University as an invitation to take the SAT early. Couple other classmates got them too. I'm guessing this is nationwide, so has anyone ever got this?

109

Games / Gasp! Scribblenauts: Unlimited being released on PC.

« on: September 01, 2012, 10:01:06 AM »

Hell yeah!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHxaRMCmjT8

The game is now in high definition, and some-what open world. The environments are much bigger, from what I'm seeing in the trailer. It's also coming to the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS, this is the only trailer I can find at the moment that's relevant to PC.

It's also going to be multiplayer, and it'll utilize Steamworks so you can share creations with other users.

I'll add more information as I find it. Unfortunately, since the Wii U has no release date, this game doesn't have one either.

EDIT: Polygon's report

110

Off Topic / The Isaac Thread - Hurricane Questions and Information

« on: August 25, 2012, 09:12:56 AM »

UPDATES:

Key West International Closed
Monroe, Broward, Miami-Dade Schools Closed till Mon.
All Flights at Miami International Airport Cancelled Outgoing Flights ONLY, Incoming rerouted to West Palm. FLL, MIA OPEN, CHECK WITH AIRLINE FOR DELAYS AND CANCELLATIONS.
All Miami-Dade Bridges Locked Down
Tornado Watch until 5PM EST for following counties:
BROWARD, CHARLOTTE, COLLIER, DESOTO, GLADES, HENDRY, HIGHLANDS, INDIAN RIVER, LEE MARTIN, MIAMI-DADE, MONROE, OKEECHOBEE, PALM BEACH, ST. LUCIE

LOCATION OF ISAAC AND INFORMATION:

Most recent advisory: 11 AM

Information:

About 135 mi. ESE of Key West
995 mbar
WNW at 20 MPH
65 MPH sustained, gusts up to 75 MPH
23.5°N 80.0°W

111

Games / New Bethesda title possibly taking place in Boston?

« on: August 25, 2012, 08:58:33 AM »

Recently, it was found that Bethesda employees were mapping out the Boston metropolitan area, as well as outlying cities. If you can recall, Fallout 3 regarded Massachusetts as "The Commonwealth" and the "Institute" several times throughout the game. They were also found to be meeting with associates from MIT.

New Fallout, anyone?

EDIT: A post was made on Reddit back on the 17th regarding Fallout 4 taking place in Boston. The poster could very well be an MIT employee, but is remaining anonymous.

chowdah

112

Off Topic / Oh stuff, a hurricane.

« on: August 21, 2012, 07:54:57 AM »

There's a hurricane that formed off the west coast of South Africa, and the forecast track is showing that it'll be south of the Florida Keys by Sunday. I'll provide more information when I get home.

113

Off Topic / Son of Beast wooden coaster to be demolished

« on: August 14, 2012, 12:20:30 PM »

Son of Beast, a 7 time record holder, has finally had its fate determined. After an incident in 2009, the ride was closed indefinitely in an investigation by OSHA. Despite the fact that the ride was operating normally, it remained closed with no comment on its future of operations. It remained in a SBNO state through July of this year, when it was said by Cedar Fair's King's Island executives that the legend would be demolished and removed.

It's sad. It was one of only two wooden coasters in the world to have a vertical loop, and considered to be the king of wooden coasters.

For anybody that's rode it, can you share some experiences?

114

Off Topic / The Internet Story - A murder, a YouTube channel, and £9000

« on: August 03, 2012, 11:11:50 AM »

clickable

"The moral of the story is, if you go looking for death, you are sure to find it."

2005. A mission arises for those that are willing. Solve a riddle, get 9000 pounds; the equivalent of fourteen thousand US dollars. Who organized? No one knows, and whoever is willing to solve it certainly doesn't care. The only thing they are identified by is a moniker, Al1.

At the same time, YouTube is created. A new concept, allowing you to share and upload videos with those all around the world. Essentially, a shouting match has started. Within this shouting match is a man named Fortress, determined to solve Al1's quest. He decides to chronicle his journey and upload it to YouTube, for those that are interested.

Nobody is interested.


If you would like to see Al1's original website, go here.

Fortress' original channel has been lost, most likely taken down by YouTube. A channel was created in 2008 and has reuploaded all his original videos. You can find them here.

115

Off Topic / City of Boston now requesting Chick-Fil-A to back out of development in city

« on: July 26, 2012, 02:25:25 PM »

Yeah.

Chick-Fil-A may have an anti-gay marriage stance, but really. They forgeted up.

116

Forum Games / [ACT 1] Subway Stories - A Text Adventure

« on: July 23, 2012, 06:07:14 PM »

Subway Stories

In New York City, the subway is practically the city's lifeline. And it's yours too. Being a college student working for meager minimum wage, you barely scrape by with your tuition payments, and you obviously don't have the cash or resources to have a car.

South Ferry - March 18, 2012, 2 PM

You stand on the cool, yet humid platform. The sounds of a street performer's ukulele can be heard from the far side of the station. As you catch a light breeze from within the subway tunnels, your phone begins to vibrate and chirp incessantly. It's your girlfriend. You quickly fumble with your phone and pull it from your pocket before putting it to your ear.

"Hello?"
"Hey, just wondering if you wanted to see a movie."
"Yeah, I'm in South Ferry, I can be down by 5th Street within 2 hours."
"Great! See you there."

You hang up the phone and push it deep into your pocket, just as you hear the intercom blare it's message of an incoming train. You quickly straighten your bag and stand close to the platform edge to be one of the first on the train. It doesn't matter to you, but you like the pleasure of being one of the first.

The train rolls into the station, and promptly opens its doors. You stride in, and stand off to the side, hanging onto a metal bar. As soon as you grab on, the doors close and you realize that you're the only person in your car. This is extremely astonishing to you, seeing as how the subway is packed at this time of day.

What do you do?

>Keep standing and look out the window.
>Sit down.
>Walk to the doors on either side of the subway car and look through the window to examine the capacity of the cars to the front and back of you.

117

Games / Wait, there's a Family Guy MMO?

« on: July 22, 2012, 10:24:32 PM »

http://www.familyguyonline.com/

I just saw a video for this in my subscription feed. To be honest, it actually doesn't look bad, but really?

Really?

118

Games / [ALPHA] Crashtastic - Smash into walls!

« on: July 22, 2012, 10:06:03 AM »

clicky

Trailer

0.4.4 ALPHA PATCH NOTES

Editor: Updated the UI to be consistent with the other UIs in the game.
Editor: Updated the UI backend, which should fix the annoying can’t press GO issue.
Editor: Added hotkeys for all of the pieces. The hotkey is shown in the editor with an underscore under the hotkey.
Editor: removed W,A,S,D support for camera rotation, arrow keys still work.

Added Ability to tune the power on individual rockets. This is available in every level. You can adjust the power of all rockets by pressing “all” or individual rockets by clicking a single rocket. If you “Lock” a rocket, when you update “All” rockets, the locked rockets power will not be adjusted.

Added the ability on some levels (currently levels #16, 17, and 18) for you to assign keys to individual rockets, so they can be actively controlled. You will see an “Assign Key” field on the pre-simulation screen next to the power slider. I am going to be watching the feedback on this functionality with the thought of possibly opening it up on all levels.

Added Four Additional Levels:

Janky Half-Pipe – a series of broken half-pipes, in a race to the exit.
Target Plateau Again?! – The Target Plateau level you love to hate, with the addition of now being able to use controllable rockets..
U-Turn! – Race to the exit of big U-Turn. This level allows for use of controllable rockets.
High in Sky – Designed with the controllable rockets in mind…. Get to, and stay on the target platform… directly above you.

Introduction

Crashtastic is an indie physics game with the goal of creating various types of vehicles to help your crash test dummy complete the tasks given to you. The game is currently in Alpha 0.4.4, with plans to ship to Windows and Mac. You can pre-order the game here for $7.99, £5.11, or €6.57, and receive immediate access to the current Windows or Mac Alpha. After the Alpha 0.4.5 release, the price is set to increase.

Levels are all unique and some simply require you to move a small distance or get somewhere in a given time. New levels are being added with every update, so there is a good variety of fun tasks to be completed.

/!\ NOTICE: At this point in the Alpha, you need to be connected to the internet to be able to play.

Tools

There are various tools available to you in building your vehicle, such as:

- Small, Medium, and Large beams for basic construction of the vehicle's chassis.
- Steerable and Non-Steerable wheels for creating wheeled vehicles such as tanks and cars.
- Shock absorbers to use in brace-type mechanisms and to give your vehicle suspension.
- Rockets to actually make your vehicle move. Worried about your car moving at 145 m/s? Don't worry, the thrust can be adjusted.

FAQ

Q: Is there a release date?
A: At the moment, no release date has been made.

Q: How many levels are there?
A: I'm not exactly sure. The numbers keep rising as updates add more levels.

Q: Where can I find additional information about the game?
A: Just click the banner at the top of this post.

Q: Will this come to Linux?
A: The developer has not specified on whether the game will be supported by Linux any time in the future.

Q: Who made this game?
A: A guy by the name of Mark Smith. You can find him on Twitter as @MarkSmithGames

Media

Dev's YouTube Channel
Nerd Cubed's Let's Play

119

Forum Games / Let's write a letter to Viacom CEO, Philippe Dauman

« on: July 13, 2012, 10:10:55 AM »

Viacom is a bunch of starfishs, so let's write a letter to their CEO. If, and when, we get a response, I'll post it here. One word per post please.


Dear Mr. Dauman,

Your

120

Games / Anybody up for some DiRT 3?

« on: July 04, 2012, 09:31:57 PM »

Me and Wehrmacht were going to play. If you're interested, add me on Steam, [EZC] RingsOfSaturn, and I'll put you in our chat.