Ever wanted to design and run your own prison? It seems like the natural thing to aspire to if you have a love of criminology and architecture. But if you don’t want to spend 7 or 8 years of your life studying these things to have a crack at the big job, how about just playing Prison Architect? This game is in alpha now and ready to take your money and give you perks, such as becoming a prisoner or warden. Check the video below.
Monthly Archives: September 2012
FILM REVIEW: Looper
Take a trip in time with Looper (image source: Looper Trailer via Youtube)
(Warning: I’ve kept this review a little vague so as not to accidentally reveal any spoilers)
It all pretty much starts with a blunderbuss, a modern anachronism drawn from the past and placed into the hands of a hit-man (Joe) who kills people sent back to his time from the future. It’s 2044, and for all intents and purposes, the world is similar to now, but grittier and much harder. Featuring action stalwart Bruce Willis (old Joe), rising good-guy Joseph Gordon-Levitt (young Joe), and the gorgeous Emily Blunt, Looper is a refreshing take on the well trod time-travel science-fiction genre which also manages to deal with adult themes in a thoughtful manner.
These days intelligent sci-fi and big budget have become a bit of an oxymoron in Hollywood, and I must admit after seeing Promethues, I instinctively lowered my expectations for Looper, which has all the hallmarks of a big production. In reality though, it’s a low-budget film weighing in at a relatively mild US$60 million. In every way that Prometheus disappointed (script), Looper impresses, and in every area that Promethus impressed (cinematography/effects), Looper does enough to hold its own, never leaving you wanting for more.
Looper is a smart science-fiction action-thriller piece that doesn’t obsess with completely reinventing the future, and happily places technology quietly into the background, instead focusing on characters and plot. The film’s central roster of characters are well developed, and refreshingly, not completely predictable. The supporting cast does a good job of coming across as ‘real’ people, as opposed to complete cardboard cutouts. Jeff Daniels plays a superb everyman crime boss while Piper Perabo fills her limited role adequately. There is also a child in the movie I am happy to say he does a great job and doesn’t detract from the film at all.
Be prepared for some gore and thought in this one.
GOOD:
Well considered story and plausible sci-fi that keeps technology in the background. This is a solid self-contained film that is the best sci-fi film I have seen since Moon or District 9. This movie will cement Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s rise in Hollywood.
BAD:
There’s not much to criticise, but if you don’t appreciate violence, then this movie is definitely not for you.
MOVIE SIBLINGS:
12 Monkeys and Inception
SCORE:
8.8/10
ANNOUNCEMENT: Vikings coming to ruin your day
Very beautiful vikings… (image source: Stoic Studios video screenshot via Youtube)
So, you like a bit of good old fashioned blood lust and snow do ya? The Banner Saga may be the game for you then, if you like to use your brain, which usually vikings do not! The banner Saga is being developed by Stoic, which is made up of three ex-Bioware staff who worked together on Star Wars: The Old Republic for fice years.
Nathan Grayson over at RPS has had some hands on time with The Banner Saga, and it sounds very promising if you like some depth.
Galaxy Sized Eye: Searching for dark energy with 570 megapixels
(Breaking story from Fermilab)
At a mountain top in Chile, the world’s most powerful sky-mapping sensor has captured ancient light in its hunt for dark energy. The Dark Energy Camera has a resolution of 570 megapixels, around 35 times the number of pixels a decent digital camera records.
Partial results from the Dark Energy Camera’s 570 megapixels of dark energy hunting goodness (image source: Fermilab)
The phone booth sized device took eight years of planning and construction to be realised, and hopes to assist scientists in understanding what dark energy may be. According to Brenna Flaugher, Fermilab scientist and project manager, this is important because
“The Dark Energy Survey will help us understand why the expansion of the universe is accelerating, rather than slowing due to gravity”
The Dark Energy Camera is made up of 62 CCD sensors (image source: Fermilab)
The Dark Energy Camera is capable of seeing light from 100,000 galaxies some 8 billion plus light years away. This is considerably ancient light. The massive sensor set is paired with a 4 metre diameter light-gathering mirror at the Blanco telescope, which is located at the Cerro-Tololo Inter-American Observatory.
Spiral galaxy NGC 1365 from the Fornax cluster of galaxies, some 60 million light years from Earth (image source: Fermilab)
The Dark Energy Camera is a part of the Dark Energy Survey that hopes to probe dark energy though studying galaxy clusters, supernovae and weak gravitational lensing.
Computer Game AI: Can they act human?
Robots will own the future…
Yes they can apparently, according to Jeffrey Matlauf from Eurogamer. A panel of judges were fooled by artifical intelligence programs created by scientists from Austin’s University of Texas and Romania when observing players in Unreal Tournament 2004.
The scientists took out top honours of the 2K Games Botprize, which fields human and AI players interacting. Amazingly, the AI bots that won, were judged more human than the human players. Read into that what you will.
The Future of Cybernetics? Dissolvable bioelectronics
A sample device dissolving into water (image source: Beckman Institute, University of Illinois and Tufts University via Phys.org)
Phys.org reports that the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois and Tufts University have developed bioelectronic devices that are completely compatible with the human body and will dissolve harmlessly into it after operating for a specific time period.
The technology is called “transient electronics” and is based upon a new class of silk-silicon technology which uses silk proteins and conventional silicon-magnesium integrated circuits. The devices can operate over a period of minutes to years before dissolving.
SHELF COMPANY X 