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Games

Why Don't We Finish More Games? 341

Posted by Soulskill from the attention-deficit-dis-hey-what's-that dept.
IGN has an opinion piece discussing why, as video games get shorter, we seem less likely to finish them than in the past. For example, BioWare said only 50% of Mass Effect 2 players finished the campaign. The article goes into several reasons gamers are likely to drop games without beating them, such as lowered expectations, show-stopping bugs, and the ease with which we can find another game if this one doesn't suit us. Quoting: "... now that gamers have come to expect the annualized franchise, does that limit the impetus to jump on the train knowing another one will pull up to the station soon enough? ... In the past, once you bought a game, it was pretty much yours unless you gave it to somebody else or your family held a garage sale. The systemic rise of the used games market now offers you an escape route if a game just isn't your bag. Is the middle of a game testing your patience? Then why not sell it back to your local game shop, get money back in your pocket, or trade it in for a game that's better – or at least better suited for your tastes? After all, the sooner you ditch it either at a shop or on an online auction site, the more value you stand to get in return."
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Dune remake restarted: 3D sandworms a possiblity (sffmedia.com)

Submitted by bowman9991
bowman9991 writes: The new Dune remake is becoming as epic as Frank Herbert's Dune series itself. Now that director Peter Berg has been ousted, new director Pierre Morel has decided to throw out Peter Berg's script entirely, starting afresh with his own ideas and vision. "We're starting from scratch," said Morel. "Peter had an approach which was not mine at all, and we're starting over again." Morel also reveals that "It's the kind of movie that has the scope to be 3D." He's also keen on sticking to the original material and recognises that he must try and delete the images associated with David Lynch's 1984 version of Dune from the public’s consciousness.
Science

Submission + - Universe closer to heat death than once thought? (arxiv.org)

Submitted by TapeCutter
TapeCutter writes: In a paper soon to be published in the Astrophisical journal Australian researchers have estimated the entrophy of the universe is about 30 times higher than current estimates. For those of us who like their science in the form of a car analogy Dr. Lineweaver compared their results to a car's gas tank. He states, "It's a bit like looking at your gas gauge and saying `I thought I had half a gas tank, but I only have a quarter of a tank."
Earth

Submission + - Scarlet Knight First Robot to Cross Atlantic Ocean 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "She was at sea for 221 days, alone, often in dangerous places, and usually out of touch. Most of the time she was out of contact underwater, moving slowly up and down to depths of 600 feet, safe from ships, nets and storms. Her predecessor had disappeared on a similar trip, probably killed by a shark, yet she was always able to do what was asked, to head in a different direction on a moment's notice and report back without complaint. "She was a hero," says Rutgers University oceanographer Scott Glenn after retrieving the 7-foot-9-inch submersible robot from the stormy Atlantic off western Spain. "We think this will just be a precursor, like Lindbergh's trip across the Atlantic," says Clayton Jones. "In a decade we think it will be commonplace to have roving fleets of these gliders making transoceanic trips around the world." The people responsible for building, funding and flying Scarlet hope the end of the robot's successful voyage will mark a new start in ocean and climate research. From its position at each surfacing, researchers could calculate the net effect of currents deep and shallow. After surface currents were measured, the scientists could then make inferences about what was happening deeper in the water column. The data were uploaded to researchers three times a day, when the glider surfaced and called home via an Iridium telephone parked in its tail. "When we have hundreds of them, or thousands of them, it will revolutionize how we can observe the oceans," says Jerry L. Miller, a senior policy analyst at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, who accompanied the research team to Spain."

Submission + - Gigantic spiral of light observed over Norway (dailymail.co.uk) 6

Submitted by Ch_Omega
Ch_Omega writes: A mysterious light display appearing over Norway last night has left thousands of residents in the north of the country baffled. Witnesses from Trøndelag to Finnmark compared the amazing display to anything from a Russian rocket to a meteor to a shock wave — although no one appears to have mentioned UFOs yet. The phenomenon began when what appeared to be a blue light seemed to soar up from behind a mountain. It stopped mid-air, then began to circulate. Within seconds a giant spiral had covered the entire sky. Then a green-blue beam of light shot out from its centre — lasting for ten to twelve minutes before disappearing completely.

The Norwegian Meteorological Institute was flooded with telephone calls after the light storm — which astronomers have said did not appear to have been connected to the aurora, or Northern Lights, so common in that area of the world."

Article in English here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1234430/Mystery-spiral-blue-light-display-hovers-Norway.html
More pictures here(in Norwegian): http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/troms_og_finnmark/1.6902392?index=false
Science

Submission + - LHC knocked out by ANOTHER power failure 1

Submitted by known_ID
known_ID writes: The Large Hadron Collider — most puissant particle-punisher ever assembled by the human race — has suffered another major power failure, knocking not only the atomsmasher itself but even its associated websites offline.

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