Polynauts Central (14/8 Archived)

Posted by Shaun McIlroy on August 14, 2012 07:16 am 1007

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Todays image comes courtesy of Zombie711

Welcome to Polynauts Central. It's Tuesday, August 14th, 2012 which means we celebrate the birthday of Daisuke Ishiwatari - the creator of Guilty Gear who also worked on Polynauts favourite Blazblue. Also, if you're into comics, manga and anime then head on over to Ultimate Polynauts for chaosyoshimage's bi-weekly all-in-one thread.

So with all that, join me now and lets spend a few minutes going over the news of the previous day gone by.

NEW ARTICLES ON POLYGON:

1: 'Dust: An Elysian Tail' review: something old, something new by Russ Frushtick

HD-resolution graphics aside, Dust feels like a late '90s spiritual successor to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Like that classic, it focuses on character advancement and customization within the trappings of a 2D, exploration-heavy adventure. But modern sensibilities seep through just enough to make Dust feel contemporary instead of dated.

2: Another Xbox Durango development kit appears on eBay by Tracey Lien

A second eBay listing claiming to sell a Microsoft Xbox Durango development kit was posted today from the same seller of an identical kit that appeared on eBay yesterday. The listing claims to be for a development kit for the next-gen Xbox and features the same non-descript image of a computer tower with no further description. The item comes with powercables and a wired controller.

3: 'Black Ops 2' and Treyarch's new rules for Call of Duty multiplayer by Michael McWhertor

Easily the most disruptive change to Call of Duty multiplayer is Black Ops 2's revamped Create-A-Class mode. In previous games, players defined custom classes by choosing one primary weapon, one secondary weapon, grenades, equipment, and three skill-enhancing perks. Custom classes in Black Ops 2 now follow a "Pick 10" system, giving players access to ten customization slots to fill with class options and, as a result, far more freedom and variety.

4: Mobile is the new PC, but not how you think by Brian Crecente

As with computer games, mobile games have to function on an increasingly wide range of phones of varying power. The best solution, Smedberg said, is to allow mobile gamers to tinker with the settings of the games themselves. "There is a wide performance range, so we have to be able to scale our graphics," he said. "We have to be able to scale from the very high end to the low end.

5: 'Sleeping Dogs' review: stray bullets by Justin McElroy

The narrative of Sleeping Dogs has a similar fondness for turning down blind alleys. Rather than a single love interest for Shen, four women are vying for his affections. Except here, "vying for his affections" means "showing up for one to two missions as Shen seduces them, upgrades the capabilities of his mini-map, at which point they disappear entirely, never to be heard from again." It's baffling, especially considering that two of the women are voiced by A-listers Lucy Liu and Emma Stone.

FROM THE POLYNAUTS FORUMS:

1: Is EA going to shoot themselves in the foot? (A commentary of the forthcoming Battlefield 4 in EA's business model) by pitseleh0

I think that producing a main sequel to the Battlefield series so early will cripple it. Maybe not quickly, and maybe not a fully fatal wound, but there will not be enough variation to the IPs released to warrant the current level of support on them, not to mention the current level of excitement from customers. The products we have now will falter, and the quality will drop. Do I know exactly what will happen? No. But I feel we will see a shift in the next few years that will mark where the FPS and Battlefield IP will stand pretty much for the rest of its life.

2: The Death of Game Consoles? by Marcham93

Will game consoles be a thing of the past? There is a strong interest in the market that shows bulky game consoles may be a thing of early 21st century childhoods. Technology manufacturers like Sony and On LIVE have developed hardware to stream video games right to your living room. While Sony has chosen to stream games directly to your HDTV via built in applications, OnLIVE has developed a small hardware box that connects to your HDTV. Microsoft seems to also want to take the initiative on streaming games as show by a leaked Xbox 720 document. What are the advantages of Streaming Games and what are the disadvantages?

3: Someone Used Steal! It's Super Effective! by DocSeuss

Long story short, don't use Paypal. Just use your credit card. So yeah, I feel as though I'm being punished for some crime I haven't committed. Shit just keeps going wrong for me, and I can't catch a single break at all. I'm angry and frustrated, and that's okay, but you can't just be angry and frustrated. You need to take action. Should you get royally screwed, don't panic, don't whine, and don't do nothing. You don't have the time to. Take action, and then react however you need.

4: I want PC emulators for next gen consoles by Hirshologist

I don't know how possible or realistic this is. (Actually, I'm pretty sure it's a pipe-dream) But one thing I would love for Sony or Microsoft to do is that in addition to the next PS4/Xbox3 console, they also release emulators for PC's. They would probably have certain GPU and chipset requirements. The emulator would probably play those games at a lower quality that the consoles (or higher in some cases), but the general idea is that it would also consumers to not be tied down to a console to play those games. After all, the console hardware is a loss leader, so it would make sense for both companies to try and give as many avenues to distribute those games as possible.

5: Shadow of Colossus and its Meaning by Lucky Lightford

I finally beat Shadow of Colossus last night for the first time. I had to play the final boss twice only because I hit the start button during the cut scene afterwards, but it was well worth it since it is a very well executed boss. The question I had for everyone is what do they think the meaning of the game was all about? I understand what happened, but I would love to see what everyone else thought about the game itself. The game has moved to the top of my favorite games of all time list (not number 1, but easily in the top 20).

REMINDER: Polygon.com : Community Requests Thread by Shaun McIlroy

This is our "Official Polynauts" topic for Polygon.com requests, those which we've all made mention of in anticipation of the sites launch in 2012. I thought I'd collate them all here for the Polygon team to check back and see if the stars align with their overall plans, whatever they may be.

FROM THE VERGE:

Ross Miller brings you the latest tech news in 90 Seconds on The Verge which covers the following:

POLYNAUTS COMMENT OF THE DAY (13/8):

"(I really have to rush out of the house now, but had to do this before I did! :D )"

CoffeeJezus (10 recommends - Click link to reveal image)

Every day there will only be one comment from the previous thread. It's decided based upon the most recommends an individual receives for their comment; should two people have the same rating then both comments will be posted.

Okay, there we have another Mondays worth of catch-ups folks. Remember to sound off in the comments below and share any awesome news you find today. As always, feel free to hit me up on Twitter @shaunmcilroy if you want to chitchat throughout the day.

NOTES:

New to the Polygon Community? Please take time to read the Community Guidelines as laid out by the editorial team here at The Verge. Particularly take note here: "Foul language: Cussing, swearing, or just plain nasty: all of the above are not cool here." That goes for NSFW material as well folks.

If you're looking the best way to filter through any current deals on games (regardless of platform) then check out The Gamers Grid created by community Polynaut, NuclearPrinny.

If you're a fan of the image up top and want to submit your own, remember to keep them coming in for this section of Polynauts Central, GIF's included, at this link. Finally, check out the thread on multiplayer events here in Polynauts Assemble! for all the latest news on who's playing what, where and when.