Polynauts Central (27/8 Archived)

Posted by Shaun McIlroy on August 27, 2012 04:50 am 816

PolynautsHeader7/8

Todays image comes from Sneaky Spy Guy, the first chosen entry in this weeks header pics contest.

Welcome to Polynauts Central. The weekend has been and gone, it's now August 27th and it's time for things get back to normal as we swandive into the pool of Polynauts Central.

Also 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.

FROM POLYGON

1: 'The World Ends With You: Solo Remix' out today on iOS by Tracey Lien

An iOS version of the Nintendo DS role-playing game The World Ends With You goes on sale today after Square Enix teased the existence of the game in its e-Shop.

The game will be pricier than your average iOS title, though, going for $17.99 on the iPhone and $19.99 on iPad. It will be compatible with iOS devices that came after (and including) the iPhone 4 and after (and including) the iPad 2.

2: 'Battlefield 3: Armored Kill' DLC to arrive on PS3 Premium first, 360 and PC later by Tracey Lien

Battlefield 3's Armored Kill downloadable content will release on September 4th for Battlefield Premium members on the PlayStation 3, before releasing on Xbox 360 and PC on September 11th.

Those who aren't members of Battlefield Premium will have to wait until September 18th for the PlayStation 3 version and September 25th for PC and Xbox 360 versions.

3: Playmatics founder Nicholas Fortungo explains the dangerous art of storytelling in games by Alexa Ray Corriea

Nicholas Fortungo, co-founder of developer Playmatics and former designer at Gamelab, believes that games are art due to their "dangerous" nature. At the Babycastles Summit in New York this weekend, a series of panels and talks by industry designers, Fortungo explained that video games are artistic endeavors both on the part of the developer and the gamer.

Fortungo cited the debate surrounding the release of Jericho, a survival horror first-person shooter released in 2007 from Clive Barker of horror writing fame. The plot revolved around a group of soldiers sent to prevent a horrific ancient from being unleashed upon the world. The being, called the Firstborn, was created by God in his image but so disturbed his creator that he was banished into an endless abyss for eternity.

4: In NYC, an introduction to Japan's most difficult game genre by Chris Plante

Joe Salina compares his favorite genre to Ambien and drone music. Shmups, short for shoot'em ups, notoriously difficulty scrolling shooters, allow Salina to zone out by focusing purely on a screen covered by thousands of bullets. "If you're girlfriend comes in and asks where's the peanut butter, you're dead."

5: Major League Gaming crowns 'StarCraft 2' and fighting game champions, disqualifies 'League of Legends' winners by Tracey Lien

Major League Gaming crowned winners for its Summer Championship in Raleigh, North Carolina, this weekend, but disqualified two League of Legends teams for collusion.

The highly anticipated tournament ran concurrently with the StarCraft 2 North American World Championship Series and drew viewers from all around the world via its high definition online streams.

While most of the competitions within the tournament went smoothly, the two teams that were battling it out for first and second place in the League of Legends tournament were disqualified after it was determined that there was collusion between the two final teams: Curse NA and Team Dignitas.

FROM THE POLYNAUTS FORUMS:

1: Enemy A.I. by knoxville

..the thing that impresses me most is the "smartness" of the enemy AI. It gives me real hope for the next gen and what it may offer for us: the enemies react to the situation, albeit a bit canned and stiff, but its a step above anything ive seen. Although there is definately parameters to their reactions, it gives a much more organic feel to every fight scene. Even though the game is not the most exciting or innovative in way of story or gameplay, this addition really makes it something special...I cannot wait to see what the next gen of console has in store for us.

2: The One Console Generation by anthonylonas

When it all comes down to it, we want to play games. We want to play good games without our experience being broken due to software and hardware limitations of one system to the next. Give consumers one choice and multiple sub choices to choose at their convenience. I believe that the current skew of how gaming hardware is handled is flawed. By narrowing the hardware choice down to what works across the board and giving us the choice of the software we want to run our experiences on, gives us a better gaming experience without limitations. Maybe one day we can live in a one console world with a unified entertainment experience, until then I'll stick with steam.

3: Multi- player gaming networks by NightSeraph

I'm looking to get into turn based strategy games with my brother and I was looking for some suggestions. Chess of course is a given. I've also played Uniwar in single player mode and I like it.

Any other suggestions.?

I'm also wondering if it's worth joining a game network, assuming that Gameloft is not the only "game in town".

It would be cool if Polygon did reviews the various game networks compatible with android. Perhaps even those that are cross platform.

4: Share your gaming PC setup! by Wisconsinated

Hey all, I thought I'd start a thread to share my gaming PC setup and ask others for theirs to share. Please feel free to post pictures of your setup with specs and anything you want to add below, I'll check back periodically to see everybody's setups! I'm excited to see them!

5: Weird Gaming Habits by KatanaShades

So I've always wondered this of other people: What kind of weird gaming habits do you have?

For me, I have a couple of weird things I do when I'm playing a game. At almost every cut-scene, I rub my fingers over every button on the controller I'm playing. Every single time. I don't know why, it's like some sort of itch that I have.

Sooo what about you guys? Any weird gaming habits or rituals? I wanna know I'm not the only weird one. :3

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.

CONTEST

Don't forget Pitseleh0's contest, which begins today:

"We seem to be lacking on the header pic submissions. Let's get cracking people!

So I'd like to venture something if I could. Totally unofficial, but I'd like to sponsor a contest.

Shop up a header pic and submit it in the usual spot here.

The pics would be chosen daily as normal (by Shaun and Paddy) and then of the choices for all of next week (starting this Mon running until next Sat) I will choose my favorite of the 6.

That person will get a 3 Month Xbox Live code as a reward. Go get to it! Let's liven up this place!"

FROM THE VERGE:

'Third seed Rocketeer' David Pierce brings you the latest tech news in 90 Seconds on The Verge.

POLYNAUTS COMMENT OF THE WEEKEND (25/26-8):

Yes, yes it was. It was in virtually every newspaper that I'm aware of, every TV station (not hard when you have 3 or 4 channels :) and probably every radio station, back when AM actually played music.

I was taking the pertinent parts of the newspaper and taping them to the door of our bedroom (in retrospect, a scrapbook would have been smarter), and the Sohio gas station near our house was giving out cardboard sheets you could pop out and create the lander. My mom, who was a church teacher at the time talked the owner into giving her a stack of them so she could give them to her class.

And seriously, it was like every eye was looking up at the moon that night. Some thought they could see them (obviously not, unless one had Superman eyes :). And looking back, even though most should have known better, some actually DID believe the LEM would sink.

Even though those original newspaper clippings are long gone, since I also collect old newspapers I do have those newspapers in my collection. And while I was out earlier and saw the half-moon up in the sky, as per the Armstrong family's instructions, I winked.

Though to be honest, my seven-year old self just saluted.

The Relic (4 Recommends)

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 Fridays' 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.