The Test Solar Road is Even Better Than Expected
The world's first solar road, SolaRoad, is doing even better than its developers thought it would.
Since opening in November 2014 between the towns Krommenie and Wormerveer near Amsterdam, the 70 metre test track has produced over 3,000 kWh, which is enough to power one household for an entire year.
The road is currently built for bicycles in order to maintain the environmentally friendly message, but it could withstand heavier traffic if required.
In other environmental news, NASA had some good news about the ozone layer recently.
Matt Porter is a freelance writer based in London. Make sure to visit what he thinks is the best website in the world, but is actually just his Twitter page.
WipEout: Still Awesome (Almost) 20 Years On
There were two games that really convinced me that the future was now when the original PlayStation launched back in September 1995. Those games were Ridge Racer and WipEout*. Ridge Racer because, holy hell, it was an ‘arcade perfect’ (remember that expression?) racer on a home console! This can’t be happening! And WipEout because it was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Sure, I’d played F-Zero on SNES, but this game’s anti-gravity racing took players on precipitous, rollercoaster-like courses at speed, and did it all to the sounds of a superb club/rave soundtrack. Wipeout was Cool with a capital C.
And if you took a step back, and looked at gaming at the time more broadly, the arrival of PlayStation represented several huge shifts for console gaming. It was the move to the bold – and as it seemed at the time, more mature and sophisticated - new world of 3D, it was the move away from cartridges to CDs, which meant more cinematic presentation and proper CD quality audio, and it was a console that – from the get-go – was marketed to teens and adults. Sony wanted the PlayStation to be a console for the clubbing generation, and WipEout was the game that most perfectly encapsulated that.
Mortal Kombat X Kotal Kahn Statue is Heart-Wrenching
Pop Culture Shock has unveiled its Mortal Kombat X 1:4 scale Kotal Kahn statue and it's gruesome.
Three variants will available for pre-order soon; Sun God, Blood God, and War God, costing $425, $435, and $445 respectively. The Sun God statue is limited to a run of 500, while the War God has a production run of 350. Lastly, the Blood God statue is limited to only 250.
The three statues each represent a different side of Kahn and his power: Blood magic, drawing power from sunlight, and his final state, the Mayan God of war. Each of the statues has a unique colour scheme and both War God and Blood God come with weapons.
Badland: GOTY Edition Coming to Most Platforms Soon
Frogmind has announced that Badland: Game of the Year Edition will be coming to multiple platforms in the last week of May.
It will be out May 26 for PS4, PS3, and PS Vita in North America, and May 27 on those consoles in Europe. PC, Mac, and Linux will get it on May 28, and it will be out May 29 for Xbox One.
The planned release date for Wii U is the end of June, but the exact date will be announced at a later time.
The base price of Badland: Game of the Year Edition is $12 on consoles and $10 on Steam. It will feature cross-buy functionality on PlayStation platforms.
Check out IGN's announcement of Badland: Game of the Year Edition for more details on what to expect.
Club Nintendo Slashes Prices for Physical Awards by 50 Percent
In its customer loyalty program’s final weeks, Nintendo slashed the amount of coins needed for Club Nintendo physical rewards in North America.
The updated Club Nintendo rewards page slashes the exclusive items by up 50 percent off, from a Retro Mario T-Shirt to Fierce Deity Link Jigsaw Puzzle:
- Mario & Luigi Greeting Cards: 300/150 coins
- Nintendogs Greeting Cards: 300/150 coins
- 3DS Game Card Case: 2015 Edition: 400/300 coins
Toren Review
When you're reflecting on a recently completed game, hating it is just as helpful a feeling as loving it. Whether your opinions are glowing or scathing, strong feelings in either direction mean that you'll have plenty to share with others when the topic comes up. It's the middling game--inoffensive but unremarkable--that really haunts you. I don't feel any regret about the time I expended playing Toren, but that's the problem. I don't really feel much about that time at all.
In Toren, you direct a small girl known as Moonchild to the top of a crumbling tower. Like the tower of Babel, it was built by people seeking great power who were punished severely for their hubris. Mankind's last hope is a girl trapped inside the tower, doomed to die and be reborn endlessly until she can scale it and slay the dragon that shares her prison. It's a web of myth and mysticism where each individual thread is vaguely familiar but has been woven into something distinct and original.
Moonchild starts as a toddler stumbling around the overgrown lower level, but the endearingly uncoordinated flopping of her limbs gives way to composure and poise the farther she progresses up the tower. The enchanted sword that takes all her strength to first lift is soon wielded with ease. Aspects of Moonchild's maturation are handled very well, including her evolving design, with one notable exception. In her awkward preteen stage, her childhood dress tears into a convenient deep V-neckline with straps slipping away from her shoulders and three large round gaps in the cloth exposing the majority of her back. This is not what happens when someone outgrows a piece of clothing, and considering that the player saw this same character toddling around in baby bloomers about thirty minutes prior, this phase of her costume evolution comes off as somewhat creepy.
The actual act of climbing the tower involves solving relatively simple environmental puzzles, fending off assorted enemies, and exploring optional dream sequences where Moonchild's mentor explains her situation and some broader philosophical musings about the nature of mankind. This is where the your experience can be seriously derailed; if you skip these optional (and easily missed) sequences, it becomes quite hard to follow the plot. You'll never want for those lofty chin-stroking tidbits, though, even though they're some of the least interesting things the game has to say.
Storytelling gripes aside, the hands-on feel of playing isn't great either. The best illustration of this comes in the form of the shapes that Moonchild must fill with sand during her dreams. Each dream has at least one of these to complete, and to do so, you hold down the interact button and direct her around the shape's outline. The game very weakly snaps her to the path, but it's incredibly easy to stray. It's even easier if you disregard the warnings and elect to play with a mouse and keyboard instead. (Don't do this. Seriously.) These sand tracings are the most annoying part of the game; even when you perform well (controller and all), it looks like Moonchild has spread the sacred sand with as much care as a toddler spilling cereal all over the kitchen floor.
I wish my problems with Toren ended there, but I can't leave out the times that I somehow managed to wedge Moonchild in places where the camera steadfastly refused to follow, the times when she simply slipped through the floor geometry and fell into oblivion, the times when Moonchild's arms froze in place while her legs continued to animate normally, the times that her sword hit foes with so little effect that I kept attacking, not realizing that they were already dead, the times that I took a jump too early but the game graciously floated me over to the destination platform as though I'd triggered some sort of moon gravity mode, the time that I fought the dragon, fudged the timing, and darted back to regroup before it could perform its “you're too slow” instant kill... only for the game to snap Moonchild back into its talons anyway.
And yet Toren is not without its charms. In spite of some conspicuously low-quality models, it's a delightful thing to look at: its colors are vivid, its world is small but detailed, and it doesn't shy away from dramatic use of its camera and lighting effects. A couple of the dream sequences elicited quiet gasps as I proceeded through them, and even the credits (which feature painted illustrations unfurled to a vocal version of the game's beautiful theme) are worth watching.
For all the problems, it's easy to recognize the flashes of something special in Toren. It's a loaf of homemade bread, proofed and kneaded, laid in a pan, and sprinkled tenderly with rosemary but unfortunately pulled from the oven a few minutes before it could pass the toothpick test. However complex the recipe, Toren just feels undercooked.
Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD Season Finale Photo Preview
The battle between the Inhumans and SHIELD has crossed a line. Jiaying murdered Gonzales but made it look like a case of self-defense, and now everyone is on edge. The two hour Season 2 finale, "S.O.S.," will see SHIELD put everything on the line to survive. The end of Season 1 left the organization gutted and ripped apart, and it appears as though they're facing starting over yet again. The synopsis says Coulson's team "will be forced to make shocking sacrifices."
Sacrifices could mean a team member dies, but maybe it also means that they have to decide to kick Skye out of their lives and leave her with the Inhumans. See a preview of what's ahead in the below photo gallery.
The Flash Photo Preview: “Rogue Air”
It doesn't seem like the team at STAR Labs can get a leg up against Dr. Harrison Wells, a.k.a. Eobard Thawne, a.k.a. Reverse Flash. He's always at least one step ahead, and Barry's just not fast enough. Barry's desperation drives him to ask for help from Captain Cold even though Joe and Caitlin explain that it's a terrible idea.
Captain Cold isn't the only person coming to help either. Arrow and Firestorm also arrive in Central City to give Barry an assist.
The Flash: "Rogue Air" Photo Gallery:
Watch "Rogue Air" on Tuesday, May 12th, at 8:00pm ET/PT on The CW.
Amy Ratcliffe is a writer for IGN TV. You can follow her on on Twitter at @Amy_Geek and IGN at alratcliffe.
Witcher 3 on Xbox One Features Dynamic Scaling
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will dynamically upscale from 900p to 1080p in certain sections.
Developer CD Projekt RED has made the announcement via official statement and Xbox One gameplay video (below).
“The video you’re now watching is grabbed directly from an Xbox One console. We’ve been working to give gamers an even better experience on Xbox One and, on day 1, we’ll bring you
dynamic scaling from 900p to 1080p," read a statement from the developer.
“We’re not much more than a week before launch, but we’re still fighting for every line of code—we want gamers to get the best possible experience we can deliver.”
This news comes in the wake of the unlikelihood of a fidelity bump to coincide with the launch of DirectX 12.
Guild Wars 2 Cheater Faces Execution
Think twice if you're considering cheating in Guild Wars 2, because you're likely to be banned in a spectacular way.
Mashable has discovered the public and humiliating execution of a cheating player's avatar.
A user by the name of DarkSide was reported by several players for teleporting and dishing out a Superman amount of damage.
Even groups of players were unable to stop DarkSide, and even if you managed to achieve the impossible and kill him, he was reportedly reappearing 10 seconds later to get revenge.