Polynauts Central (6/7 Archived)

Posted by Shaun McIlroy on July 6, 2012 04:17 am 762

Art by the talented New Zealand artist James Reid, via Technabob.com

Welcome to Polynauts Central for Friday July 6th, 2012.

It's Friday. That means for many of you its time to relax and get ready for the weekend. For others the working week never ends but whatever you do rest assured that somebody, somewhere, appreciates everything you do. Yesterday I might have been a little presumptuous (I write the majority of TAY during the previous evening) when I said it was fairly quiet in the topic formerly known as PolyTAY. It seems once I went to bed you all came out of the woodwork. Thanks for that!

Anyway, let's crack on with todays roundup of yesterday here on Polynauts Central.

Polygon Must-Read Articles:

1: Brian Crecente may be vacationing but the hits keep on coming. His instalment in the ongoing series 'The state of games' involves looking at the 'state of gamers'; or people who look just like you. You can read part one, 'State of AAA', here; part two, 'State of Indies', here; and finally you can read part three, 'State of mobile', here.

"Being a modern gamer shouldn't simply mean that one plays games, or even video games; it implies a greater sense of community and culture, one that hopefully can stay connected not just online, but in person."

2: Justin McElroy give praise for The Walking Dead: Episode Two by Telltale Games.

"This is incredibly ambitious game design, and it's fulfilling a promise of games as interactive storytelling in a way that so many others seem content to phone in or ignore all together."

3: 'The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Dawnguard' is reviewed by Russ Frushtick.

"You're given a choice: become a vampire lord, or head back to the Dawnguard and continue the fight against the undying."

On The Verge:

Kimber Streams has a fantastic little piece up that goes behind the scenes of an IMAX screen installation in London, England. The theatre documented the process from the day the they closed the screen, right up to today and the screens first showings of The Amazing Spider-Man.

Chris Ziegler has a look at the visual history of the Android operating system. If you're into user interface design and the iteration process behind it then it's worth a look for some of the smaller details you might not have known about.

"Google also used the launch of Gingerbread as an opportunity to gain some footing in the mobile gaming market, an area where it had lagged iOS significantly. The new version gave developers lower-level access to audio, device controls, graphics, and storage, which allowed them to write considerably faster native code — absolutely key for creating the rich, graphics-intensive 3D games that the platform lacked."

Meanwhile, over on Eurogamer:

Jon Denton has a piece up on Battlefield 3 about how fan-run servers are ruining DICE's game.

"There's a seedy, repugnant underbelly dead set on controlling and ultimately ruining what is one of the finest shooters ever made. And for many, it's just too much to bear."

From Polynauts Central:

Yesterday saw the final instalment of TAY and whilst we embrace our new identity as Polynauts let's take a few parsecs to have a look through some of the conversations that stood out.

PaddyStardust asked what Sim City game he should start with on Steam as a novice. Many, including myself, suggested Sim City 4 as the learning curve was somewhat easier than 3000.

ak-blanc told a sweet little story about looking after his daughter after a busy evening looking for old photos somewhere for a friend

Gigawings shares their top tips for stalking people, and it seems like a highly effective four point plan..

m0re finally proves there is indeed something worst than Comic-Sans.

TheRelic talks about some of the rare merchandise they have discovered at their local Volunteers of America.

I talk about the chances of FFXIII-3 happening and why its ever-so-likely we won't be seeing FFX HD in 2012.

RealmRPGer asks a question about games that have passive ability customisation and the community didn't disappoint. This segment turned into an epic Pokémon thread which really should be read if you've stepped away from that series in recent years. He also came out with an appropriate zinger for a problem I had to endure whilst writing this post.

And finally lets have a look at some news from outside the world of videogames.

The BBC have this piece up on Chinese immigrants who have flocked to Canada's west coast, "transforming Vancouver into Canada's very own Asian metropolis". The days of concern over the city being turned into 'Hongcouver' have gone. What does the future hold for Canada's Asian population?

A woman who stabbed a 13-year-old to death in a Doncaster park said she was being "demonically attacked", a "pagan priestess" has told a court in Sheffield, England. Via BBC.

Minority Report technology moves one step closer to reality (and probably Kinect integration) with HP's see-through screens that would allow users to see both the computer visuals and the backdrop of the room.

And finally on the news, Android smartphones are reportedly being 'used for botnet' purposes, researchers from security firm Sophos have said.

"He said analysis of the IP addresses used to send the email revealed the spam had originated from Android devices being used in Chile, Indonesia, Lebanon, Oman, Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Ukraine, and Venezuela."

I guess the news from around the world for today isn't a great improvement on the news from yesterday with botnet intrustions and demons aplenty but there's plenty of game related stuff right? No matter where you are in the world though nothing can ruin the last working day of the week for you. What plans have you got for tonight and the weekend folks?

*Note*

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