Polynauts Central (4/9 Archived)

Posted by Shaun McIlroy on September 4, 2012 08:05 am 1246

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Todays image is by Black Knight Rebel.

Welcome to Polynauts Central. It's September 4th and its back to school tomorrow for those UK based folks heading to further education/college so expect more evening based nonsensical talk.

So, one more time lets deep dive into Polygon on The Verge and talk about games, technology, food and other fun things.

  • Please take note 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 #3 for chaosbirdomaid's all-in-one thread.
  • If you want to talk game related art - or even art in general but be sure to head over to the thread byParadox Me called The Polygon Gallery of Fine Arts and grab yourself some cheese, olives and a glass of wine.
  • If you want to talk about, or discover new music then Shinta has a thread for you simply called Music.
  • If you want to talk about any movies or television shows with fear of spoilers then go to PrinceLUDA21's Polynauts: The Movie: Episode 1 thread.

FROM POLYGON

1: Kojima: Project 'Ogre does not appear in' new Metal Gear Solid trailer by Christopher Grant

While Metal Gear Solid maestro Hideo Kojima was undoubtedly pleased with the reception his latest game, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, had at PAX Prime in Seattle over the weekend, there was one response that he became "sick & tired of." That response was actually in the form of a question: "Is that Project Ogre?"

Project Ogre was what Kojima called the mysterious game he teased in December. Back-to-back tweets included an image of a soldier and a tank, and another of translucent fabrics and bra straps. Kojima later told CNN that Ogre includes a "very open world where players can wander around and explore freely."

But it would appear that Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes is not that game. "Project Ogre is what the project that Ogre appears," Kojima wrote on Twitter. "Ogre does not appear in 'MGS Ground Zeroes' trailer."

2: 'Dark Souls' creator contemplates introducing Easy difficulty mode by Emily Gera

Dark Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki is contemplating the addition of an Easy difficulty mode to widen the notoriously difficult title's audience, he said in an interview with The Metro.

Miyazaki states he wishes his games to be described as "satisfying rather than difficult," while offering the player a sense of accomplishment.

3: 'Aliens: Colonial Marines' will feature playable female space marines by Michael McWhertor

During an E3 livestream, when Gearbox producer Brian Burleson was asked whether Aliens: Colonial Marines would feature female colonial marines, he responded "No, sadly not." He added "There's lots of girls in the game, it's not just all guys." Given the Alien series' strong female protagonists, like Ellen Ripley and Private Vasquez, an all-male playable cast seemed like an unusual oversight by the developer.

4: Valve says it's jumping into the computer hardware business by T.C. Sottek

In a job listing for the "industrial designer" position on Valve's website, the company has finally made its hardware ambitions explicit: Valve says "we're frustrated by the lack of innovation of in the computer hardware space, so we're jumping in." The job listing says that "even in basic input, the keyboard and mouse, haven't really changed much in any meaningful way over the years," but it stops short of naming the actual hardware that a Valve-employed industrial designer would create.

5: Angry Birds become Freddie Mercury for a day by Brian Crecente

Angry Birds want to ride their bicycle... for a good cause.

Angry Birds makers Rovio Entertainment are teaming up with The Mercury Phoenix Trust to help celebrate Freddie For A Day by creating a wondrous video and selling some limited-edition Freddie Mercury Angry Bird t-shirts.

FROM THE POLYNAUTS FORUMS:

1: PolyContest: Win some Modern Warfare 3 'Chaos Pack' DLC for Xbox 360 by Shaun McIlroy

Welcome Polynauts, lurkers and irregular readers to our first giveaway of the week. We've got three Chaos Pack DLC codes for the Xbox 360 version of the game to give away (thanks to Justin McElroy at Polygon HQ) and we're going to do it with some pop-quiz style shenanigans. Simply answer this question.

In Press Reset: Episode One, what does Polygon Editor-in-Chief Christopher Grant mention as his hobby away from the world of videogames?

2: Steam Greenlight: What did you vote for? by Blobbeh

Well, Steam Greenlight launched a few days ago, and mixed in the with absolute crap, there are a few really neat games. Games seem to require quite a few votes to pass, so that's where this thread comes in!

Share and discuss the games you want to pass through submission, or mock the RPG Maker 95 pre-alpha games here. I would share some of the ones I stumbled across, but I ranked every game that's up, and I didn't bother to favorite the ones I liked.

3: Video-Game Nostalgia Mix Performed at V&A Museum, London. Daft Punk, Mario, Zelda.. by Markabre

Last Friday I performed at an event at the V&A Museum in London as one half of the DJ Duo, The Roustabouts.

The set was inspired by nostalgia for classic video games and mixes the new, the old and the familiar. If anyone's interested I've uploaded a 20-min taster of that set here. In this set Daft Punk Meets Mario & Zelda goes Super Gangnam Style! I've thrown in a few other guilty pleasures too. ;) Enjoy

4: Dimensions - The first time I've felt tired of Final Fantasy by GunFlame

So, Square-Enix have just released their latest Final Fantasy entry; Final Fantasy Dimensions. I think most of you know plenty enough about it already, with it being an mobile version of the long running series that is bundle in a sort of retro style. A send up to the 8 and 16-bit versions of the game.

Now, I haven't played much. I've played about 1 hours worth actually, so it's merely a trickle as far as Final Fantasy games go, but regardless, It's not something I'm feeling right now.

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.

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MW3: 'CHAOS PACK' CONTEST

We've got our first Modern Warfare 3 DLC code ready to giveaway. It's a pop-quiz folks, the details of which can be found here and ends at 23:59 PDT.

The other contests will follow on Wednesday and Friday respectively.

FROM THE VERGE:

Due to the 'Labor Day' holiday there wasn't a new '90 Seconds on The Verge' podcast so here's some technology linkage instead.

POLYNAUTS COMMENT OF THE DAY (3/9):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxkiUM4KSUQ (Actual comment)

GunFlame (3 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 days worth of catch-ups folks. Remember to sound off in the comments below and share any awesome news you find today. As always, check out the @Polygon feed on Twitter to keep up to date, or feel free to hit me up at @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