Starwars: Battlefront trailer

Following on from the announcements of the upcoming Call of Duty and Deus Ex titles, here's the trailer for Star Wars: Battlefront:

I used to love jamming Battlefront II with my brother on the trusty old PS2 nearly 10 years ago. The maps set in Tatooine were some of my favourites.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided announced

Since I just placed a link to the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided announcement video in my previous post, I figured it would be more useful to just put the video here too.

One thing's for sure, the new Deus Ex will probably have a better a better campaign story than Black Ops III.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III announced

Yes you read that correctly, Treyarch have officially announced that the next title in the Call of Duty franchise will be Black Ops III. No big surprises there, given the huge success of Black Ops II.

Black Ops III will be set in the future, and judging by what's been shared on Treyarch's Facebook page, gameplay will feature cybernetic enhancements (Deus Ex anyone?), and possibly laser weaponry. The ever popular 'Zombies mode' will also be making a return.

A full reveal will take place on 26 April 2015.

The Order Exposed - Whitechapel Power Failure

A second newspaper clipping has been shared. Unlike the first article shared, this one has a visible date, and the main story being reported upon is legible, for the most part. A transcription of the article appears below the image.

United Herald, Saturday October 17, 1886 - One Penny

District Paralysed by Power Failure

Total outage: Whitchapel, Stepney, Shadwell.

Partial outage: Wapping, Bethanl Green, Spitalfields, Tower.

Council authorities have yet to provide an explanation for the loss of electric power experienced throughout the Whitechapel district. The situation remains unresolved as this paper went to press, prompting fears that the already notorious neighbourhood could descend further into disorder with looting and violent [repp...] among rival underworld factions likely to increase.

The interruption in electric service is rumoured to have followed an incursion by Her Majesty’s Knights into the area. The blackout came seconds after a ghastly eruption of animal noise. Whitechapel’s legion of stray dogs set to a fiendish howling and were seen rampaging through the streets and alleys.

“It were a terrible thing to hear. A terrible thing,” claimed one [guttersnipe] who said he himself heard nothing untoward.

Were the knights to blame for the sudden disruption? What reason did they have for violating the Whitechapel perimeter? Officials [b...] quarters remain mum on the subject. Could terrorists have tampered with the power station, hoping to instill panic? And do they now plan on escalation to city-wide chaos? Or was Whitechapel’s well-known reputation as a stockpile of illegal [w]eapons to blame?

Our readers demand answers.

The incident described occurs in the East London district of Whitechapel, which is probably most famously known for being the location of serial killer, Jack the Ripper's activities. However Jack's five canonical murders only took place after the article above was published. Thus Whitechapel must have been a "notorious neighbourhood" for other reasons in 1886.

From what I've found on Wikipedia, in the early 1880s Whitechapel was primarily inhabited by poorer members of the English working class. There was also an influx of immigrants, primarily Irish and Jewish, and many inhabitants of the district would have been living well be low the poverty line. As such, many of the women were forced to become prostitutes in order to subsidise a families meagre income.

According to a day of the week calculator by Calculator Cat, 17 October 1886 was a Sunday, not a Saturday. I checked 17 October 1880, in case I'd misread the date, but that was a Sunday too.

Of interest is the headline of another article at the bottom of the page, "Additions to the underground planned." This may tie the above clipping to the Railway Map of Central London that was posted shortly afterwards.

The Order Exposed - United India Company

The following photo of a copy of The Morning Post front page was posted to The Order Exposed blog last night:

The date is not visible. in fact the only article that seems to have a legible headline is one entitled, "United India Company." The subheading looks to read, "Combination callf..."

While I couldn't find anything about the the United India Company, there is a lot about the East India Company, who even had a vessel named Agamemnon. One of the blue prints discovered by Ian and Jim are for an Agamemnon Class Airship.

The East India Company became defunct in 1874, although an East India Club was founded prior to the company's closing, and acted as an officer's club. The East India Club is still in existence today, as a gentleman's club. The Club's physical address is on St. James's Square, which may tie it to the activities of The Order.

In addition to the gentleman's club, there is an equivalent club for ladies, The University Woman's Club, which is situated in Mayfair. In the right column of The Morning Post page posted, under the advert we can see a headline that reads, "More... wars on Mayfair ...nt."

Not sure where all this is leading to, but it seems a lot was going down in quite a small area.

The Order Exposed - Tesla's Note

A new puzzle has surfaced, which was found by Ian Q and Jim S in Tesla's underground lab:

There are characters that look as though they are Serbian Cyrillic. This makes sense as Tesla was born in the Austrian Empire, in a region now included in Croatia. Jim S's transcription of the note however used Latin characters to represent these letters. I checked the transcriptions and there were a few more inaccuracies too, which I corrected.

After including the Cyrillic characters, I used a Caesar Shift Cipher, with 11 as the key, which spat out the following text:

"bez obzira na potešjoče moj rad napreduje, novo oružje radi vrlo dobro. ja sam vrlo zadovoljan sa thermite pušjom, bez obzira na poćetne probleme i poteškore sa vatrom tokom ljeta. usprkos drugih istraživanja koja me privlaće, bolje je da se koncentriram na sadašnji rad. vrijednosti su prevelike. bilo koju prijednost da ja mogu doprinjeti mojim suborcima, ja ju moram ostvariti. mi se borimo"

I ran this through Google translate, which detected the language as Serbian/ Croatian. Google also suggested changing "potešjoče" to "poteškoče," so I did. I then changed the "j" in "pušjom" to a 'k,' as that was the only word that remained untranslated. It worked, and Google gave the following translation:

"Regardless of the difficulties of my work progresses, new weapon works very well. I am very pleased with thermite rifle, regardless of the initial problems and difficulties with fire during the summer. Despite other research that attracts me, it is better to concentrate on the current work. Values are too large. Any advantage that I can contribute to my comrades, I have to realize it. We are fighting for all..."

The Order Exposed - Weapons/ Devices

Arbalest repeating crossbow

Seen in first and second videos posted to Ian Q's blog

Machinepistole
Shown in second video 

Arc gun

Shown to still be in working condition in second video

Essex M86.FL Thermite Rifle

Agamemnon Class Airship (Blueprints)

Agamemnon commanded the united Greek forces in the Trojan War
Looks to have been given the registration code "G-FAXX"

? Class Airship

Differs from the airship above in that it has twin balloons

Communicator

The Order Exposed - Underground Headquarters

Tonight Jim shared a video of he and Ian Q entering the London sewer network in St. James's Park. Ian Q mentions that he believes that there is a series of underground tunnels leading to The Order's headquarters. He is shown using the map shared last night.

In the video we see what Ian Q and Jim exploring an underground room that contain many artefacts, that lead us to believe that the chamber was indeed used by The Order. There is appears to be an early version of a Tesla coil, several laboratory flasks containing preservative fluid and soft tissue specimens, a set of knight's armour, a machinepistole, an arbalest repeating crossbow (also visible in Ian Q's first video), and a working version of the arc gun.

Machinepistole concept art

Arbalest repeating crossbow concept art

The Order Exposed - Ravens of the Tower of London

Last night 'Jim' posted a picture of an armband thought to belong to 'Ian Q's' great grandfather (above). The armband bears the symbol of a white tower, covered by what appears to be the head of a raven. This combination is likely a reference to the ravens of the Tower of London, and perhaps more specifically, the White Tower.

The current symbol for the Tower of London (right), depicts the façade of the building, and shows the entrance to the tower on the first floor.

According to the time-line of Ian Q's great grandfather's journal, the Constable of the Tower would have been Sir Charles Yorke. Yorke died on 20 November 1880, and was succeeded by Sir William Fenwick Williams.

I'm not sure how the ravens relate to White Tower, but perhaps in an alternate reality Ian Q's great grandfather witnessed the event that led to Yorke's untimely end.

The Order Exposed - 'Masonic' code, Part II

Today we got another photograph of the first page of the journal, as well as a another string of 'Masonic' symbols. First here's a comparison of the transcriptions of the first page posted by 'Ian Q,' and then 'Jim.' Differences between the two transcriptions, and the source material are marked in red. I've tried to format the two texts so that they match the journal.

Ian Q's transcribed text from 25 December:

November 12, 1880
Several months ago I was approached by
F.K. to report on the activities of a group
of operatives within the halls of
government. Clearly he was aware of my
assignment to the Royal Guard at the
Palace of Westminster. It took time and persuasion but I finally
agreed for reasons I need not address
here. This is the first entry of my
journal. Its purpose is to document the
operations of a group that seem [my by]
shrouded in secrecy, to record what I
have witnessed in the last few months
and what I have been tasked to keep an
account of: The Order of Her Majesty's
Royal Knights.

Jim's transcribed text from 23 January:

November 12, 1880
Several months ago I was approached by
K. to report on the activities of a covert 
organization within the halls of
government. Clearly he was aware of my
assignment to the Royal Guard at the
Palace of Westminster. I immediately
agreed for reasons I need not address
here. This is the first entry of my
journal. Its purpose is to document the
operations of a group that seem [my by]
shrouded in secrecy, to record what I
have witnessed in the last few months
and what I have been tasked to keep an
account of: The Order of Her Majesty's
Royal Knights.

For some reason Jim's transcription is a more accurate transcription than that of Ian Q. Just to make sure every one is on the same page [da-dum tish], the reigning monarch at this time was Queen Victoria.

The new masonic code is on the reverse of the page transcribed above, and translates to read,

"THERE CAN BE MEANING IN DARKNESS"

Perhaps this is a motto, or a justification for the events and happenings that Ian Q's great-grandfather was instructed to document.

-- Update 20:03, 24 Jan. 2015 --

"There can be meaning in darkness" was a clue to look for a hidden message in the ink blot on the page posted earlier this evening.

The Order Exposed - New Year's Day OTP

Clues for deciphering the 'New Year's Day' code are split between three different posts by Ian Q.

1 January:

A string of 32 letters, "UcrxtfwvRahfzVuyzwXspgblsfedXgys" was posted, along with the message, "First of four."

2 January:

A reference to the "other" Frank Miller. Miller was the cryptographer responsible for creating/ describing the one-time pad (OTP) in 1882. 

In a post about Charles Darwin, the following OTP 546-14 is given. I'm fairly certain that when I first read this post at about 15:00 this afternoon (23 Jan.) there was no hyphen in the OTP. I think it's been edited to make it simpler to decode the text from the New Year's Day post.

-- Update 23:50, 23 Jan. 2015 --

If you follow the link provided in the Darwin post from 2 January, you'll be directed to a digitized copy of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (5th Ed.). the OTP points us to page 546 (left), line 14, which reads, "How these difficulties can be mastered."

Since the cipher was only 32 characters long, and this sentence has 33 characters, the key becomes:

'HowtheseDiffiCultiEscanBemasTere'

The capitalization used is the same as that in the cypher, and it's significance will be made known in a later point.

The next step is to use the key to correctly decode the message, as outlined in Table 1. Each character is substituted for a numeral, with A = 0, and Z = 25. The value of the key is then subtracted from the value of the corresponding cipher. If the resulting number is less than 0, then 26 is added.

Table 1. Solution to the New Year's Day/ Darwin OTP

The decoded message thus reads:

"NovemberOscarTangoTangoHotelEcho"

The uppercase letters in the cipher were used to denote the beginnings of each word. Initially I had interpreted the upper case I as a lower case L, but that was easy enough to fix once the rest of the cipher had been cracked. Once again there is a code within a code, and using the NATO phonetic alphabet, we can be further decode this to read "NOT THE." 

Since this was the first of four OTPs, we'll have to wait and see what the rest of the message is, and whether or not it ties in with the two 'Masonic' codes.

-- Update 12:16, 24 Jan. 2015 --

I was researching the ravens of the Tower of London, when I came across a list of unlucky symbols. In Chinese custom, the numbers four, five, and six are considered unlucky. These are the same numbers used for the page reference in the New Year's Day/ Darwin OTP code. Not sure if there is more meaning to this, or simply a coincidence.

The Order Exposed - 'Masonic code'

Here is a direct translation of the code posted to The Order Exposed on 27 December, with corrections denoted by square brackets, after the decoded symbol:

NOVEMBER FIFTEEN

LH HAD AN URGENT CONVERSN[A]TION

WITH SP IN THE ROYAL GALLERY FOR

A QUN[A]RTER HOUR LH DEC[P]ARTED THE

PALACE IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARDS IN

A CARRIAGE I WAS UNABLE TO

FOLLOW NOVEMBER SIXTEEN SP

ARRIVED AT THREE ENTERING

DISCREETLY AT BLACK RODF[S] GARDEN

USHERED INTO THE ROYAL COURT

DRAWING ROOM I DID NOT OBSERVE

THEM LEAVING HOWEVER AT QUARTER

FIVE THE ROOM WAS UNOCCUPIED

The Black Rod, or more correctly, the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, is a parliamentary position held in a number of Commonwealth territories. In 1880, the year the coded journal entry is thought to have been written, the position was held by General Sir Thomas Knollys.

According to the comments posted at The Order Exposed, LH may refer to a Lord or Lady, possibly Lord Hastings, while SP is thought to mean Sir Percival.

Percival was a knight of King Arthur's round table, most well know for his involvement in the search for the Holy Grail. 'Ian Q' refers to King Arthur in History and Legend in his post dated 29 December. The post also mentions a page number, but I couldn't find it. The title of the book also contains the solution for the email number code.

There are a few instances where the incorrect symbol was used, in particular, that for the letter N was used instead of the symbol for A twice. Other mistakes include switching C for a P, and F in place of an S.

If the word 'quarter' was spelt incorrectly in both instances I think the substitution may have had more significance. Inititally I though the G in 'gallery' was a T, but the dot is not as well defined as in the other symbols, so is likely just a lapsus calami.

The Order Exposed - Email number code

The Order Exposed is a blog/ alternate reality game based on the happenings of the upcoming PlayStation 4 exclusive The Order: 1886.

So far there have been a few references to old books, and a 'Masonic code' (with key) posted. In fact the first post holds a key too, although less obvious.

In the top left, written on the yello post-it note, is the key to the number code received by sending an email to ian.q1985[at]gmail[dot]com. The automated repsonse reads:

Hello,

I’m travelling and will only have sporadic access to my email. I’ll try to get back to you as soon as I’m able.

Cheers,

Ian

2334441531 2433142411 432415424211 4411332234 3443131142 4234321534 541133251515

By using the grid on the post-it, the following number can be deciphered to read:

"HOTEL INDIA SIERRA TANGO OSCAR ROMEO YANKEE"

This is NATO phonetic alphabet spelling the word "HISTORY." 

I haven't tried calling the telephone number included as a hot link in the email, but hopefully someone who lives in the United States will do so soon, and post the outcome online.

Now to see if History is a cypher for the code posted on 1 January, or how it relates to the OTP from 2 January. The letter J (or Juliett) is missing from the 5x5 grid in the image above. I'm not sure if this has any implications on the 1 Jan. code though.

Video of next Assassin's Creed game leaked

While Ubisoft are still trying to sort out the bugs from their first 'next gen.' exclusive Assassin's Creed title, Assassin's Creed Unity, it seems that the team over at Ubisoft Quebec are already getting themselves ready to announce next year's AC title, Assassin's Creed Victory.

News of next years AC release comes through leaked video, and images shared by Kotaku. According to Kotaku's post, Victory will be set in Victorian era London, and will only be released on PC, and new gen. consoles. 

I'll be quite interested to see which famous characters from the era will be included, and in particular if we'll get a chance to interact with Charles Darwin, his contemporary Alfred Russel Wallace, or even his opposer, Sir Richard Owen. Being tasked with hunting down Jack the Ripper, or even finding out that Jack's activities were Assassin/ Templar related, would be a really interesting story sub-plot to 'explain' the inconsistencies in the modus operandi of the Whitechapel murderer(s). 

This is the first time Ubisoft Quebec is heading up the development of an AC title, an I really hope they can bring some innovative new features to the gameplay and story telling. From the video footage described on Kotaku, it sounds like they've done just that, with the addition of a grappling hook device, and fight sequences that take place atop moving carriages and trains.

If the virtual London is rendered with same architectural accuracy as we saw for Unity's Paris, then I'd be really keen to be able to take a stroll down 'Exhibition Road' (and maybe even causing some raucous during the Great Exhibition with the likes of Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, and George Eliot), and explore the British Museum (Natural History).* 

There are no recent releases that make want to upgrade to a new console, and with the exception of Evolve, there are no future releases exclusive to next gen./ PC that could tempt me to upgrade either. I'll be keeping an eye on the development of Victory though, as this may just be the first truly next gen. Assassin's Creed experience, and may just be the excuse I need to upgrade/ build a dedicated gaming PC.

For those of you not so sure about this title because you're still smarting after all the glitches Unity served up, here's an apology from Ubisoft Montreal's CEO, and some news about free DLC.

--

* now the Natural History Museum

Header image from Kotaku

Emagon reveal trailer

Whatever Emagon is, it looks amazing!

Could this be the first new gen. release that will show off the true capabilities of next gen.? 

I'm really hoping we'll get an English version of the video (and some more details) on Friday, as alluded to at the end of the video.

In the mean time here's a translation courtesy of Nahuel Graziani,

"20 years... it's a lot of time. Look around you and see everything that you have received (could also be, "Look upon everything given to you"). A kingdom of infinite places. You have conquered this place, you have built and destroyed.Look forward, for the light shall guide and care for you (not entirely sure here, guy's accent is odd).But this time, it's different. This time, the myth is real.For the first time your actions have real consequences. They need your help. Listen, you can hear them.The power to change things is in your hands..."

From the translation I'm speculating that Emagon, may be some sort of open world/ sandbox ["A kingdom of infinite places"] type role-playing game ["Look upon everything given to you"], potentially with elements of online co-operative multiplayer ["They need your help. Listen, you can hear them"]. 

Guess we'll have to wait patiently to see what else surfaces regarding Emagon, which interestingly spells 'No Game' when reversed. Maybe this isn't a game, and more of an experience, perhaps something along the lines of Journey. Alternatively this could merely be a tech. demo to show off the consoles capabilities, similar to what Quantic Dream did with the Kara video for PlayStation 3.

The Goliath guide

First there was the Big Alpha infographic. Now, there's the Goliath infographic:

This new infographic puts into perspective just how powerful a real-life Goliath would be. Except it doesn't really, because it uses imperial units. So for those of you not in the United States, Myanmar, or Liberia,* here's a quick 'translation' of the units to the metric system so that you can fully grasp the magnitude of Goliath's feats.

Height (1 metre ≈ 3.281 feet)

Goliath = 22.5' ≈ 6.858 m
Hunter = 6.5' ≈ 1.981 m

6.5' seems a bit tall for the hunters, especially given that the average height of a male, aged 20-29 in the U.S. is only 5'10''.

Perhaps in the future people will have evolved to become taller, or be genetically augmented in a Space Marine manner.




Leap Smash (Distance) (1 metre ≈ 3.281 feet)

Goliath = 52' ≈ 15.850 m

52' divided by 8 is actually 6.5'

Red kangaroos (Macropus rufus) can jump as far as 9 m (= 29.528') in a single hop, which means Goliath can only leap ~1.761 times that of a kangaroo. Not quite as impressive.


Bite Force (1 newton ≈ 0.225 pounds force)

The bite force of a Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) is 22 kN (≈ 5000 lbf), while that of a saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) is 16 kN (≈ 3700 lbf). The data here are a little dubious, as salties are meant to have the highest recorded bite force in a laboratory environment, and the conversions have been rounded up.

However if we take the average for the two crocodile species, we get 19 kN, so Goliath's bite force would be approximately 247 kN, or 56550 lbf!



Weight (1 metric tonne ≈ 1.102 U.S. ton**)

Goliath = 9.6 tons ≈ 8.709 t
Killer whale = 9 tons ≈ 8.165 t

Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are not actually whales, and instead belong to the dolphin family. The recorded weight of largest known male killer whale was ~ 10 t, or 11.023 tons. So Goliath is comparable in size to a large dolphin.

Speed (1 metre/ second ≈ 3.208 feet/ second)

Hunter = 23 ft/s ≈ 7.014 m/s

The fastest recorded speed for a human is 12.420 m/s (= 40.748 ft/s). This was achieved by Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt during a 100 m (= 328.084') sprint event held in 2009.

The average walking speed of a human is 1.4 m/s, or 4.593 ft/s.

At a leisurely stroll (1.4 m/s), it would take approximately 17.853 seconds to clear the 24.994 m (= 82') radius of Goliath's flame breath. Therefore minimal chance of survival. At the hunter's speed of 7.014 m/s, it would take 3.563 s to escape, slightly better odds of surviving. At the record speed of 12.420 m/s, it would only take 2.012 s to escape Goliath's bad breath.

Since we don't know how fast Goliath can run, it is difficult to determine exact chances of surviving a flame breath by simply turning tail, and running. Having fire resistant armour, and a nearby medic, would no doubt greatly increase your chances of survival.


Distance (again, sort of) (1 metre ≈ 3.281 feet)

Goliath can lob a projectile 167' (= 50.902 m), which is pretty impressive.

While a majority of pine tree species reach heights of only 15–45 m (= 49.216–147.638'), the tallest ponderosa pine (Pinus pnderosa) has been measured to be 81.770 m (= 268.274') tall. So climbing to the top of this would put you well out of range of Goliath's missiles.

Conclusion

Goliath is pretty mean, but not as mean as the initial figures made him out to be. Still you probably wouldn't want to run into him in a dark alley Shear forest on your own.

I'm really hoping Turtle Rock and 2K release similar infographics for the remaining roster of monsters, as well as some more background stories for the hunters. Actually an infographic detailing the various flora, fauna, and environments of Shear would be great too.

--

* These countries have yet to officially adopt the metric system, with the United States being the only industrialised country to not yet have adopted the metric system.

** Also known as a short ton.

I survived Kyrat 2014

Last night I managed to finish the story for Far Cry 4. I did so in about 15 minutes, without shooting anything (I didn't even get a gun), without driving a vehicle, and without even leaving the dinner table...

That's right, by following Pagan Min's instructions (as well as the audio cues courtesy of The Clash), and simply staying put, and waiting for him to return, I was taken straight to Lakshmana. Lakshmana is where Ishwari Ghale (your in-game mother) requests you take her ashes. There is a brief playable part where you get to place Ishwari's ashes, and open a door. Then there's a short cut scene, and before you know it the credits are rolling. Mission accomplished!

While the alternate ending skips all the fun parts of Far Cry 4, it enabled me to get a glimpse of the world before heading to bed last night. The opening scenes look really good, especially given that I'm playing on a old gen. console. It was at the dinner table where things started to look a little dated. Pagan Min looks as though he has had time to not only wash all the blood from his face, but also all the detail, texture, and life too. 

After Min had left the room, I took the opportunity to look around. Note I said look around, not walk around. I'm not sure if the alternative ending will play if you move from the dinner table. From my vantage point I could see three rather thick bank notes strewn on the table, several half eaten meals, some trinkets/ chimes blowing in the wind, and a flashing (collectible?) item in another room. I noticed that if I moved the camera around too quickly, the screen got glitched in half due to lag. I don't recall this happening at all in Far Cry 3, which also uses the Dunia 2 engine. I'm not sure if this phenomenon occurs in the game's outside world too, or if it is restricted to pagan Min's dining hall. I'm assuming due to the increased detail outside, it'll still glitch, but hopefully this will be fixed in the coming patch. 

Despite the graphic problems I'm looking forward to giving Far Cry 4 some proper game time, and am especially looking forward to tackling some honey badgers. 

2 Patches + 2 Days = Far Cry 4

Far Cry 4 has only been out for two days, and there is already a preview from Ubisoft giving some details of  Patch 2.

I pre-ordered Kyrat Edition for the PlayStation 3 mostly for the extra stuff, but also because many of the reviews were saying it played very much like Far Cry 3. In my mind that is a positive comparison, especially given FC3's many favourable reviews, and the extent to which I enjoyed it.

News of Patch 2 comes only hours after Alex Hutchinson (FC4's Creative Director) claimed that the Day 1 Patch was a means of preventing pirates from enjoying the game:

PC players! If you're online complaining about the lack of FOV control ... You pirated the game.

— Alex Hutchinson (@BangBangClick) November 18, 2014

It's a little disheartening to hear that almost every game to be release this year has come with a fairly substantial 'Day 1 patch.' It's great that developers continue to work on a game even after it has 'gone gold,' but why aren't these errors being picked up during play-testing and quality control before the discs are sent of to be manufactured? I completed the entire story of Far Cry 3 before I had figured out how to connect my PlayStation 3 to the internet. If there had been a Day 1 patch, I wouldn't have been able to download it, and essentially would have wound up playing an 'incomplete game.' I probably wouldn't have enjoyed the experience as much, nor spent nearly as many hours exploring the Rook Islands if the game had such fundamental errors as corrupted save data.

I will probably start a proper playthrough of Far Cry 4 this afternoon. I'm hoping that I wont encounter too many issues. If I do find the experience to be flawed, the I'll put FC4 aside for a few more days and wait for Patch 2. At least I still have Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel to keep me busy, and I'm quite enjoying my second run through Elpis.

Evovle's Big Alpha Infographic

Evovle's 'Big Alpha' event has come and gone, and from this infographic it looks as though it was a huge success:

These were the dates that the Big Alpha ran for.

At the moment it seems that playing as a hunter means you have a 56.75% chance of winning a game, versus only a a 42.25% chance if you play as a monster.

That seems to be a pretty balanced outcome. Given that most players would have been familiar with a 'hunting style,' it's not surprising that the hunters fared better. 

What will be interesting to see is how these figures change after a few more balancing tweaks, and after the games official release. I'm fairly certain some players (see below) will opt to become specialised monster players, honing their skills at evading hunters, optimising evolutionary progressions, and learning which abilities to use in particular environments and scenarios.

These figures really intrigue me. Assuming that every match had five players, four hunters and a compulsory monster, it's interesting to note that the Assault and Monster classes were the most favoured. I'm guessing the Assault class was popular because of flamethrowers, miniguns, and lightning guns. I mean who doesn't like flamethrowers, miniguns, and lightning guns?

Well me actually. Personally (and if South Africa hadn't been excluded from the Big Alpha), I would have chosen to play as either Griffin (Trapper) or Lazarus (Medic). Obviously harpoon guns, silenced sniper rifles, personal cloaking devices, and "slightly illegal" devices that effectively make your character a necromancer aren't as sexy as flamethrowers and lightning guns. Whatever.

That's a lot of rounds played. Just imagine how many more rounds there could have been had so many PlayStation 4 players not experienced issues.

It seems a lot of people like to watch with approximately 5 viewers per round played.

It definitely seems like a lot of people like to watch. Creepy bastards.

Were these just regular players, or was there a developer involved?  

If you like gaming orientated infographics here are a couple for Call of Duty and Diablo III.

Tales from the Borderlands is coming this month

I've spent quite a bit of time playing Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel since its release, but i'm not here to tell you about that today. Check back in a few days though if you do want to hear more about it. 

Today I'm sharing with you the most recent trailer for Tales from the Borderlands. 

As the timeline from the video (also below) explains, the 'Tales' from the Borderlands are set after the events of Borderlands 2. For those up to date with events of Borderlands 2, it hasn't yet been explained how Handsome Jack is able to narrate the trailer for Tales just yet (SPOILER: Jack dies in Borderlands 2), but I'm sure that that will be explained in the first episode. Given Telltales' success with The Walking Dead series, the possibility of Handsome Jack coming back a zombie can't be ruled out, but it is more likely that Handsome Jack left various ECHO recordings, or hologram messages to be found by the player, which would explain how he is able to communicate with the player from beyond the grave.

In addition to Handsome Jack, former vault hunter Zer0 also makes an appearance in the trailer. He is definitely still alive, and seemingly responsible for rescuing Fiona, Rhys, and Vaughn from a bunch of bandits. It'll be interesting to see how that interaction plays out in the first episode of Tales, as well the rest of the season.

I'm a big fan of the artistic style used in the Borderlands and The Walking Dead franchises, and I'm an even bigger fan of the stories from the Borderlands universe. While I'm really excited to see in which direction Telltale take the Borderlands story, I'm not as excited about the episodic nature of the release. I'll likely wait for the five episodes of Tales to be released on a single disc.

That's what I thought I'd do with The Walking Dead game too, but then my brother ended up getting it for Xbox 360. I figured that instead of buying the same release, I would rather save my money, and simply TWD in successive visits home. Instead during my last visit my brother and I ended up playing couch co-op. Diablo III: Reaper of Souls. Ironically RoS is a game we both have, and technically I have two copies of the base game.

Tales from the Borderlands will be available on old and new gen. consoles, PC, Mac, and iOS devices, with "other platforms to be announced." If you're intending on getting this for PC, then Steam is currently offering 10% off the regular price of US$24.99. I don't know if that is the price for episode one only, or the entire series, but the description leads me to believe it's the former. I could be wrong. Steam's 'pre-order special' is only valid until 25 November which could mean that that is the release date for Tales.

The only things still to be announced by Telltale is what bonuses will be made available to folks who purchase Tales, and have also purchased Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel? Could Tales hold the key to the hidden Baroness character?

Will you be buying Tales from the Borderlands digitally on day one, or will you be waiting for the compiled edition on a disc?