Polynauts Central (23/8 Archived)

Posted by Shaun McIlroy on August 23, 2012 07:36 am 638

PolynautsHeader7/8

Todays image comes from the mind of our breakfast loving friend, LulzJager

Welcome to Polynauts Central. It's Thursday, August 23rd, 2012. There are clear blue skies on the horizon, our eggs sunny side up and its time once again to dive into the vortex of Polynauts Central.

Remember that if you're into comics, manga and anime and want a nice organised place to talk about those, then head on over to Crisis on Infinite Polygons Issue #2 for chaosyoshimage's all-in-one thread.

So with all that, join me now and lets spend a few minutes going over some of yesterdays gaming and technology news.

FROM POLYGON

1: Battle.net blocked in Iran, 'World of Warcraft' and 'Diablo 3' inaccessible for some by Samit Sarkar

Over 20 World of Warcraft players complained about the problem in a thread in the tech support section of the European Battle.net forums. A number of users there also posted Iranian IP addresses and timed-out ping tests; the connection issues seem to have begun after yesterday's weekly server maintenance. Users in Iran are reportedly unable to load up the Battle.net site without using a proxy server; however, a couple of them have noted that they can play Diablo 3 but not World of Warcraft.

2: 'Diablo 3' lead designer addresses flaws with difficulty, Auction House, and item drops by Michael McWhertor

A day after the release of Diablo 3's game-changing update, version 1.0.4, lead designer Jay Wilson has addressed ongoing player concerns about the game, revealing future update plans that include player-adjusted monster difficulty, further end-game tweaks, and the next major patch.

Wilson's update on Diablo 3's ongoing design starts as a formal apology to former Blizzard North designer David Brevik, who worked on the first two Diablo titles and recently criticized the third in an interview.

3: Edmund McMillen on talent and why his 'Basement Collection' was so long in coming by Emily Gera

"I actually tried to do this in 2008, on disc only," McMillen tells Polygon. "I didn't at the time know anyone with the tech knowledge to actually put the collection into a single pack so I just placed the .swf files in folders on a CD along with bonus content and had the CD physically printed. It sold out within the year and by 2009 it was in the hands of a lot of prominent producers at Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft that all reached out to me about making a console game. this is actually how the Super Meat Boy deal appeared.

4: 'Halo 4' achievement list revealed, featuring spoilers of the upcoming campaign by Emily Gera

An Achievements list for Halo 4 is now available after being released by the title's developer 343 Industries.

The inevitably spoiler-riddled list reveals the main campaign will contain eight missions, with the final mission unlocking difficulty-based end-game rewards.

Users will be able to hunt down terminals, with additional tasks to find Master Chief's records within the first chapter.

5: iOS Gaming Watch List: 'Lost Cities,' 'Toybox,' and 'Window Warrior' by Russ Frushtick

Each week the iOS Gaming Watch List will inform you of some noteworthy releases coming to the App Store. Major releases tend to hit on Thursdays, so we'll be coming at you every Wednesday with the games to look out for, as well as some of the bigger content updates on the way. While this won't be a comprehensive list of games releasing for a given week, it does offer a quick selection of games and upates that show promise or look interesting for one reason or another. Worth noting that we have not played many of these games, so you shouldn't take these as short reviews. Think of this more like a helpful guide of games to investigate as they launch on Thursday.

FROM THE POLYNAUTS FORUMS:

1: Polyknights Guild Wars 2 Mini-Wiki by Lynith

Wondering what this whole Guild Wars 2 thing is about?

Debating on whether or not Guild Wars 2 is the right game for you?

Getting tired of WoW and just want to know what's different? (See: Recovering Addicts)

Read this mini wiki for more details.

2: Crisis on Infinite Polygons Issue #2: All of the Polynauts are Dead! by chaosyoshimage

Last time on Crisis on Infinite Polygons: A discussion of high quality mech shows broke out and the only thing that could silence it was talk of the webbed menace of Spider-man, however, will the bronies stand for such minimal pony talk? Find out in the new, Hasbro backed issue: All of the Polynauts are Dead! Actually, none of my features series are from Hasbro oops, I need to get better at these references...

3: 3DS or not? by Richw626

I have the chance for a 3DS at £70 ($110) - I just wondered what your thoughts are on it at that price? Worth it?

4: Which Series would You like to see get the Hardcover Treatment? by Pojodin

With pre-orders available for The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia and The Sky: The Art of Final Fantasy Boxed Set, I was wondering which series you would like to see get the hardcover treatment? Feel free to elaborate on any specific content you would like to see in said book.

5: Why there a great hate against EA? by Danny Gho

I never understand why the hate against EA that exist in the gamer communities, People often accused EA by ruining their series (I mean, sequel to Wings Commander?, That's a 20 year old game, People always demand new IP, but hate EA for not releasing a sequel), providing buggy PC port, and making game series they bought worse (Like NFS X is the best, EA NFS Y sucks; they ruining the series!)

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:

'Fresh Meat' Dan Seifert brings you the latest tech news in 90 Seconds on The Verge.

POLYNAUTS COMMENT OF THE DAY (22/8):

"Possibly… You could also "hire" some interns and have them do it… kids will do anything if you pretend its for college credit."

Nipah (14 recommends) - Or "Captain Inappropriate"

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 Thursdays' 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, if you want to submit a header image for Crisis on Infinite Polygons you can do that on this thread.