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Role Playing (Games)

Sims 3 Expansion Announced 84

Posted by Soulskill from the hundreds-of-new-ways-to-torture-your-sim dept.
EA has announced that The Sims 3 will be getting its first expansion pack on November 16th, titled World Adventures. It will be available at first for the PC and Mac clients, and later for mobile platforms. "Players can take their Sims on new journeys to famous real-world inspired destinations around the globe for the first time ever and seek out new adventures. ... From mastering martial arts in Shang Simla, China, discovering rich culture and famous landmarks on a romantic getaway to Champs Les Sims, France or exploring the depths of ancient tombs in Al Simhara, Egypt, players can take their Sims on a journey that will change their Sims' lives." EA's Lyndsay Pearson spoke further about the expansion in an interview with IGN.

Comment Re:Why Should Verizon Compromise At All? (Score 0, Troll) 106

by The_DoubleU (#28740917) Attached to: Verizon Offers Compromise In Exclusivity Debate

Say you have a DSL line with AT&T and want to buy a Dell laptop to use with that connection but you can't because only Verizon is allowed to sell Dells with their DSL line. If you want to use AT&T DSL then you have to buy a Mac. (Linux is supported on both networks but only 56K connections)

The customer should be allowed to buy any mobile device they want and then go to a service provider to get a connection. So the customer can get the best choice for them. The phone they want + the service they want.

Comment Re:I'm a guy (Score 1) 708

by The_DoubleU (#28099197) Attached to: Sony CEO Proposes "Guardrails For the Internet"

Couldn't agree more. And the people in the USA have some great service like Hulu. Not so much here in Ireland.
Example. I have BBC channels in my TV subscription and they talk about their iPlayer as a great service to watch an episode that you might have missed. Great! Oops, UK only because of license restrictions.
No worries, I can download an episode from iTunes, Apple is making a lot of hype about that. Oops, not available in Ireland.
Ah, I will check out Hulu.com. Sorry not available for me due to license restrictions.
Let's go to the official website of House, to name a populair TV series. "Sorry, episodes are only available in the USA" Again license restrictions.
So now I subscribe to a great USEable NET and for just a few euro's a month I can watch any episode I want. That money could have gone to the creators but they can't seem to find a way to get it to me. I would pay 50c per streaming episode or watch a few commercials.
They need to realize that the world is now global for the consumers too. Stop with the artificial borders, put it online for a cheap and a lot of people will pay for it. They might even buy the DVD set. Some people will still pirate it but they wouldn't pay for it anyway so no lost sale but the restrictions you have now are stopping people who are willing to pay.
Take a look at eMusic, I'm a subscriber for 1,5 years now 90 songs for 22 euro and I have the feeling that more of that money goes to the artist then if I would buy the CD.
Games

Early Reviews Reflect Well On Mirror's Edge 73

Posted by Soulskill from the faith-is-rewarded dept.
The much-anticipated first person non-shooter Mirror's Edge is being released today for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Reviews for the game, while not without complaints, are generally positive. 1Up praises the controls, saying, "It gets things very right very early, distilling its first-person platformer ambitions into a very manageable control scheme. ... Once you're familiar with Faith's abilities and their limitations — imparted through a much-needed tutorial — it's easy to see potential routes through the world." Ars Technica is more critical, noting that the main story's gameplay only clocks in at about six hours, and that the artistic style doesn't vary much between levels. Nick Channon, a producer for Mirror's Edge, sat down with Gamasutra and discussed the reasoning for some of their design choices. The PC version of Mirror's Edge and some additional downloadable content will be available in January.
Unix

Submission + - /etc

Submitted by pschmied
pschmied writes: slash ee-tee-cee slash et cetera slash et-cee slash et-sizzle-cowboy-neal-era
Wireless Networking

Submission + - T-Mobile's WiFi-phones: Non-Standard? (markwelch.com)

Submitted by
markwelch
markwelch writes: "Can somebody tell me if I'm right or wrong in concluding that T-Mobile's WiFi phones are using a proprietary standard that's not fully compatible with 802.11 standards?

_____

Last week, my wife and I changed our cell-phone service and bought Nokia 6086 phone from T-Mobile, because of their offering of WiFi calling capabilities.

What they told us (and today, telephone sales AND in-store staff repeated this) was that these phones would work with any WiFi router using the 802.11 standards. Our experience was quite different: most of our calls were "dropped," and we could not reliably connect to our WiFi network. Yesterday, I paid Comcast $100 to come out and replace our wireless router with a Comcast wireless gateway.

Today, T-Mobile's "Hot Spot at Home" support staff acknowledged that its implementation of WiFi telephony is non-standard and proprietary. The service will only work reliably with routers which have been specifically designed to implement T-Mobile's proprietary standard (currently, only LinkSys and d-Link offer such routers). Connections with other WiFi networks are possible, but intermittent at best.

It also turned out that our home lies in a "weak signal" zone for T-Mobile, so that when calls were dropped from WiFi, the phones were usually unable to hop over to a T-Mobile wireless connection, and therefore the calls were dropped. We also found that even when we disabled all wireless networks, our calls were still dropped due to the poor T-Mobile signal. (Of course, the T-Mobile web-site and in-store sales staff both showed maps proclaiming excellent signal strength at our home.)

We'll be returning the T-Mobile phones and cancelling their "service" later today, once we transfer our phone numbers back to AT&T/Cingular.

Analysis: As a cynic, I'd normally assume that this was simply a "bait and switch" tactic, designed to force more people to buy T-Mobile's proprietary routers. But there's more confusing data to consider:
  1. T-Mobile has "rolled out" this service relatively quietly; it's mostly marketed to people who ask about WiFi. When I called for information, it was hard to get any meaningful data about the service or phones. When I visited the store, the WiFi display was not prominent, and the sales staff emphasized the limitations of the phone.

  2. Strangely, T-Mobile offers only two very limited telephones for use with WiFi — even though most cell-phone makers have designed and shown much more advanced models. (For example, one of the two phones has a 1.3-megapixel camera and no memory-card slot; the other has a 640x480 camera.)

  3. And now, T-Mobile has revealed that its phones use a proprietary variation of WiFi that won't work reliably with standard 802.11 wireless networks, but only with special routers designed to T-Mobile's specification.


It appear that T-Mobile wants to alienate customers who want WiFi. Why would this be?

Kill Wifi Telephony: Ah, yes. T-Mobile charges for wireless telephone service, based on "minutes used." Its financial interests are not well-served by converting customers to free WiFi calling. But its consumers were demanding WiFi, and so it offered a service — not to capture new customers, but in an attempt to "ruin WiFi's reputation."

This is reminiscent of the bizarre "electric car" strategy: two automakers (GM/Saturn and Honda) offered electric cars for sale in California, but limited production, set absurdly high pricing and lease restrctions, and suppressed all marketing efforts. Then, when consumers defied expectations and demanded more electric cars, the companies stopped selling them, and when the leases expired, they were repossessed and actually crushed.

The goal: get cell-phone users to say, "Gee, Ma, those WiFi phones just don't work reliably. They're crap. We'd better stick with 'real' wireless telephone service at much higher rates."

T-Mobile is engaged in fraudulent misrepresentations when it claims that its WiFi phones will work with standard WiFi networks and routers. It should stop making those misrepresentations, and advise customers that the WiFi phone feature will only work reliably with routers designed specifically for T-Mobile's proprietary standards. As intended, this makes T-Mobile's phones less attractive — but without damaging the reputation of WiFi telephony in general.

http://www.markwelch.com/perspective/t-mobile-frau d.htm"
Movies

Submission + - Google Throws Lead Paint on Movie Download Market 6

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As promised Google shut down its video store Wednesday — and its DRM made sure all movie files purchased from the store ceased to funtion. This has sparked a firestorm of negative commentary from the Digerati who see it as pure theft. Cory Doctorow called it "...a giant, flaming middle finger, sent by Google and the studios to the customers who were trusting (as in dumb) enough to buy DRM videos". John Dvorak called it "old bait-and-switch tactics" where vendors make promises, but build-in the ability to reneg on those promises if they choose to do so later. Both Dvorak and Doctorow call for the judicial system to step in, but MP3 Newswire says that the abuse to consumer trust will do more damage to the paid download market than anything the courts could inflict. "As a consumer, if you purchase a digital movie file online only to have it unexpectedly repossessed you will probably think twice before ever buying any such download again. If you do consider it again it certainly won't be for the same price as before. Experience made these downloads worth far less to you. So what are feature film downloads that can be revoked at any time worth in the market place? To some Google Video customers the value of a movie download dropped all the way down to zero."
First Person Shooters (Games)

Submission + - First Person Perspective Pinball Machine

Submitted by pigeontheory
pigeontheory writes: The Furminator is a First Person Perspective Pinball machine based on the Terminator 2 Pinball Machine. The construction is a pinball machine housed into a large box built onto a height adjustable pole and fits on the head of the player! Unlike an ordinary pinball machine, the player's head becomes immersed into the machine with a completely different kind of view than a typical pinball player would see. Since the playing field is all the player can see, the flippers are controlled by trigger buttons on two joysticks. There are several static cameras capturing all aspects of the game for observers to see. At 50 cents a game for five balls, you will either get an overwhelming rush of pinball or a huge headache!
Media

Submission + - BBC Corrupted (defectivebydesign.org)

Submitted by
eneville
eneville writes: "
Today the BBC made it official — they have been corrupted by Microsoft. With today's launch of the iPlayer, the BBC Trust has failed in its most basic of duties and handed over to Microsoft sole control of the on-line distribution of BBC programming. From today, you will need to own a Microsoft operating system to view BBC programming on the web.
— Matt Lee."
Sony

Submission + - Sony BMG claims copyright on fair-use media (youtube.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Thy searching Youtube for scenes from the recent concert in Orlando where Beyonce fell on her face off the stairs in front of the entire audience, some of whom had cameras and recorded it... it seems that Beyonce + Sony BMG have gone on a copyright spree takedown claim on what clearly are fair-use clips. They even took down a 13-second clip that was posted an year ago, which contained a similar fall of Beyonce: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL34UDPmeDU

Yet they clearly left untouched and online other full-length videoclips of Beyonce.

Also, try searching for "beyonce fall" or "beyonce falls" (WITH the quotes), Youtube returns slightly different results for each search.

55 second clip of the fall, still online, not sure for how long though. The close encounter with the floor is right at the start, lol:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh0xrf4RU1Q

Here are a few other Beyonce fall scenes taken down by Sony BMG with false copyright claims on what is clearly fair use: (links taken from the youtube search results, might not be worth mentioning if the story is published, as they are dead/killed by youtube at the moment)

39 seconds-clip of fall taken down:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT8zGLAXrhA

13 seconds-clip of fall taken down (different from the year old one mentioned above)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iMXR44yDK0

51 seconds clip of the fall, taken down by Sony:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeYnQHx7RXQ

1 min 12 sec clip of the fall, taken down:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYHswb_fRcQ

2 minute-clip of fall taken down:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKJpbmnefVs

2 min 13 sec clip of the fall, taken down by sony:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfDGQzUn15E

2 min 5 sec clip of the fall, taken down:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=himR-qo2voA
Quickies

Submission + - Poll - Chick-fight you would pay most money to see

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Agent Scully vs. Col. Carter
Padme Amidala vs. T'Pol
Sue Storm vs. Dark Angel
Xena vs. Barbwire
Britney vs. Lindsey
Cowboy Neal vs. his junk-tucked reflection

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