ANNOUNCEMENT: Meet your MaK(er)

I like the notion of creation games, but more often then not, I find myself snoring at what’s on offer.  I’ve never been interested in Minecraft, and I’ve goofed around in Portal 2’s Aperture Labs, but I’ve found them a little constraining in their creativity, and the experience of construction is done for the pleasure of others – the process itself is not really that fun.  What I’m looking for is something a little more fulfilling when I’m putting the hours in, ideally creativity that is rewarding as you play.

Meet MaK, An indie game in development by Crowe T. Robot.  It’s a spin on Minecraft and Portal 2’s Aperture Labs, seeking to use physics, creativity and world building in a completely cohesive and fresh fashion.  MaK is only in its infancy, but so far it looks pretty promising.  Checkout the video below.

The game also has a Steam Greenlight.

Iranian shop owners blast Tehran

Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, still has a year left to serve as President (image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Iran has been in the headlines of the Western media quite a lot lately.  Tensions over its nuclear program threatens brash action from Israel, and the issue has managed so far to dog the US election campaign.  Behind all this, for many months now, the West has been ratcheting up sanctions against Iran in an attempt to force Mahmoud Ahmadinejad into opening up, or indeed, cancelling its nuclear program.  It appears that the side-effects of sanctions maybe gaining some traction within Iran.

Demonstrators in Iran clashed with police Wednesday, Ramin Mostaghim and Patrick J. McDonnell from the LA Times report, in protests that have been linked with the nation’s fading national currency.  Some 500 shop owners, usually a more complacent element of Iranian society, marched in Tehran to voice their concerns.

The protesters described Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government as “inefficient”, while also complaining about the flow of financial aid into Syria, supporting its struggling president, Bashar Assad.  Over the last 12 months, Iran’s currency, the rial, has lost almost 80% of its value against the US dollar, leaving shop-owners unwilling to sell goods in fear of not being being able to purchase more due to the rial’s deflated value.

The downwards spiral of the rial, according to Robert Tait from the Sydney Morning Herald, is directly in response to Western sanctions, which have imposed a reduction of export of Iranian oil from 2.5 million barrels per day last year, to only 1.1 million barrels this august.

This all coincides with a US court formally ordering al-Queda, Iran and several other defendants (including Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) to pay $6 billion in compensation to US victims of the September 11 attacks (Herald Sun).

Read more @ the LA Times

Read more @ the Sydney Morning Herald

Read more @ the Herald Sun

Instant funding for Eternity kickstarter project

The logo from Obsidian Entertainment’s Youtube video

Just under 3 weeks ago, Obsidian Entertainment inserted itself into the kickstarter market with a dream to make the best RPG computer game they could without the hassles of studio overlords to destroy their vision and distort their objectives.  As of writing this, Project Eternity has raised $2.26 million in funding.  With a basic pledge goal of $1.1 million, the project has been amazingly successful and as a result, Obsidian Entertainment has released (continually growing) stretch goals with 13 days still left on the board before funding kicks in.

So what is all the fuss about?  Ever heard of or played Planescape Torment or Fallout (the original and New Vegas) or Baldur’s Gate?  Well if you have, you probably don’t need a lecture from me, but if you haven’t, these are among the best RPG games for PC ever made.  This studio is synonymous with great character development, intricate and well thought out stories, as well as great gameplay mechanics.

So far, the money raised has come from over 51,000 backers.  This project is so popular, that there are already 18 backers committing between $3k and $10k towards the project (and getting rewards like assisting to design an enemy or tavern in the game).

With Project Eternity, Obsidian Entertainment promises to

“recapture the magic, imagination, depth, and nostalgia of classic RPG’s that we enjoyed making – and playing.”

“Project Eternity will take the central hero, memorable companions and the epic exploration of Baldur’s Gate, add in the fun, intense combat and dungeon diving of Icewind Dale, and tie it all together with the emotional writing and mature thematic exploration of Planescape: Torment.”

If you are interested, there’s still almost 2 weeks to go to choose a pledge package.

Read more @ Kickstarter

Watch Project Eternity video @ Youtube

NASA talks space bases at an Earth-moon lagrange point (UPDATED)

A cropped image of Earth-moon-Mars Lagrange point relationships from the NASA website.

NASA is has some ideas about developing a space base from its parts of the International Space Station when it is dismantled in the future, to act as a staging area for future moon and Mars missions.  According to PC Mag author Damon Poeter, apparently it will be positioned at a lagrange point some 61,000km from the moon, and 443,000km from Earth.

According to Wikipedia, lagrange points are:

“the five positions in an orbital configuration where a small object affected only by gravity can theoretically be part of a constant-shape pattern with two larger objects (such as a satellite with respect to the Earth and Moon). The Lagrange points mark positions where the combined gravitational pull of the two large masses provides precisely the centripetal force required to orbit with them”

This is all to go hand-in-hand with NASA’s new SLS (Space Launch System) that is in development and due for first testing in 2014.

Read more here @ PC Mag

(UPDATE)

Mark Whittington from Yahoo! News discusses the challenges of NASA’s emerging ‘beyond moon’ lagrange point plans.  Large distances for resupply and positioning outside of the Earth’s magnetic field are obvious hurdles for the space station concept.

Earth’s 5 lagrange points relative to the moon’s influence.  Lagrange point L2 is the proposed point of NASA’s spacestation (image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Unless NASA plans to use it as a space re-fueling depot, critiques suggest the space station will not serve a real purpose.

Read more @ Yahoo! News

Also a lot of great info and images here @ Space.com and @ here as well

Solar eruption in HD video

Some amazing NASA footage of a long filament of solar material erupting out of the Sun’s corona recorded late in August.  This article is a little late, but is well worthwhile posting.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Peter F Hamilton – Great Road North (UPDATED)

Peter F Hamilton’s Great Road North (image source: goodreads.com)

Peter F Hamilton’s latest novel set in the Commonwealth universe (sci-fi meets murder-mystery).

See it @ Goodreads

See it @ Amazon

(Set for release 27th Sept. 2012 at amazon.co.uk)

(UPDATE)

My copy is on its way to me from Amazon.co.uk.  I look forward to reviewing it, but unfortunately I won’t have time to read it for at least 6 or 7 weeks, and by then I’ll also have Hydrogen Sonata as well.  None-the-less, when the opportunity arrives, I look forward to nestling down and reading this (and Hydrogen Sonata).  Amazingly, it cost me about half-price to buying it locally, including freight, and it’s a hardcover copy.  Globalisation at its best.