In an inspiring attempt to try and take even more gratuitous liberties with the works of Dante Alighieri, Visceral Games has announced a Europe-only special edition bundle of its upcoming Hell-based action title, Dante's Inferno. The "Death Edition" bundle comes with a copy of the poem, some making-of documentaries, and an art book. However, its greatest bonus is a new skin for the game's scythe-wielding protagonist: The slot-helmeted outfit of Dead Space's hero, Isaac Clarke. Check out the full costume after the jump.
Now that we think of it, there's something pretty similar to this cross-promotion in the text of Dante's epic poem:
"I saw multitudes to every side of me; their howls were loud while, wheeling weights, they used their chests to push. They struck against each other; at that point, this space miner came in and killed them with this big scythe. Needless to say, it was pretty [expletive deleted] radical."
Once upon a time, a smattering of new HD channels in one major metropolitan area was a huge deal. Nowadays, it's almost expected that one area or another will experience some HD expansion each week. In order to keep things nice and tidy around here, we deliver high-def expansions, market expansions and anything else dealing with HD channel growth right here. If we missed an area that you're familiar with, drop us a line in comments so everyone can catch up. The more the merrier, we say!
Read - Charter Communications switches channels, expands high-definition cable TV in West Michigan Read - WealthTV to Enrich Channel Line-Up on Cincinnati Bell Read - Comcast adds to HD lineup in Baltimore County Read - Oceanic Time Warner Cable releases 8 new HD channels Read - MASN finally makes it perfectly clear Read - Mediacom to Launch Big Ten Network Read - Cox renumbers lineup, adds 12 new HD channels (Fayetteville) Read - More HDTV choices are on the way (Milwaukee) Read - TIME WARNER ADDS TO CHANNEL LINEUP (Chillicothe) Read - NBA At-Home Viewing Just Got Better With Verizon FiOS TV's NBA LEAGUE PASS Widget Read - Cox makes changes to channel lineup (Louisiana) Read - New HD channels coming to Yuma area (Arizona) Read - Time Warner Cable adds five HD channels (Akron)
Haven’t you always wondered what you would look like with a unicorn horn protruding out of your forehead? Come on, you know you have! The fine folks at mono have finally given all iPhone users the opportunity to younicorn-themselves with the Younicorn (iTunes link) iPhone app.
It’s $0.99 of magical hilarity. Take a photo and then use your finger to pinch and drag the horn. Choose a fun background and come up with the ultimate holiday greeting card.
Not convinced that you NEED to Younicorn yourself? Check out this video that mono made, bringing the app to life as it were.
Don’t be surprised if you start seeing Younicorns taking over your Twitter and Facebook shortly!
It's like The Justice Society and the Justice League teaming up. Valve has just announced plans for The Passing, the first downloadable mini-expansion for Left 4 Dead 2 as the new survivors of the zombie apocalypse meet up with the four characters in the first Left 4 Dead game.
Set after the events of the Left 4 Dead 2 campaign Dead Center, the new campaign storyline is set in Georgia and will not only have the two sets of teams meeting each other, but will also include new arenas for Survival, Scavenge and Versus Modes. There will also be a new (and so far unnamed) co-op challenge mode. The Passing will also add a new melee weapon, a new firearm, and a new "uncommon common" Infected. The Passing is due for release sometime this spring. There's no word yet if The Passing will be a free download for the PC version.
New Tory to 'tackle anti-social behaviour' Cambridge News An open caucus meeting took place at the Guildhall in Cambridge on Saturday morning to select a new Conservative prospective Parliamentary candidate for the ...
Megablogging, meet microblogging. WordPress now supports posting to and reading your WordPress blogs through any Twitter client that allows custom APIs. Following a WordPress blog on Twitter means you get snippets and links to new posts, just like you'd get any other tweet. Connecting your own WordPress blog to Twitter means you can tweet and blog simultaneously.
WordPress' Matt Mullenweg wrote a blog post explaining how to connect Twitter and Wordpress using Tweetie 2 on the iPhone. Basically, you just need to find your Twitter client's Custom API settings (for Tweetie 2, they're behind the little gear icon on the Add Account screen) and enter https://twitter-api.wordpress.com/ as the API root.
WordPress can also attach geotagging information from Twitter to your posts, if your client supports it. If you've got multiple blogs, you can go to the profile settings in your WordPress dashboard and choose which one to associate with each of your Twitter accounts. We're used to thinking of tweeting and blogging as two separate things, but the WordPress team sees them as closely related, and API support is a pretty cool extension of that philosophy.
The Ritz-Carlton has something new up its sleeve: a collection of smaller, unique, boutique-style hotels in stunning natural locations. The first Ritz-Carlton Reserve will be opening December 22, 2009 on Phulay Bay in Krabi, Thailand.
"Ritz-Carlton Reserve will feature signature, one-of-a-kind boutique resorts positioned in unique settings, each with a distinctive personality and sense of place reflecting its history and culture," says Simon F. Cooper, president. "Phulay Bay in Thailand is a natural choice for the first Reserve."
Why? Because it's awesome. Phulay Bay, on the Andaman Sea, is surrounded by rocky forest hikes with hidden waterfalls and sandy beaches. From the resort, you'll be able to fly around the coast via sea plane, take a meditation class with local monks, ride elephants and visit ESPA, the swanky new spa. Can you think of anything else you'd like to do on your luxury vacation? Just let them know; they'll figure it out.
"We want guests to enjoy and discover the extraordinary diversity and beauty in this part of the country in a setting of relaxation and rejuvenation," says Estelita Sebeto, the resort's General Manager. "We have worked with nature to maintain a setting that evokes the very best of the natural environment of the hotel and sourced local and sustainable materials in its construction and styling. We see the resort as an ambassador for the local environment and for the tradition of the land here in Phulay Bay."
The fabulous boutique hotel and 54 adjoining villas comes with extra-special service, so the price is extra-special as well. The rooms start at approximately $582.18 per night, and the villas at $809.99.
Though Japan has been enjoying the adorable bounties of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver for months now, us poor westerners still don't know when to expect the games on our store shelves, or whether they'll include the Pokéwalker accessory which allows you to take one of your encapsulated soldiers out for a discreet night on the town. Fortunately, if the games'Amazon listings are on the money, both these Unown pieces of info have been divulged: According to the listings, they're coming March 14, along with the Poke Ball-shaped peripheral.
The latter information actually comes from the games' supposed box art, which we've posted above. We've contacted Nintendo to find out if the Amazon listing is authentic. If it's not, we're going to give them the most guilt-inspiring sad puppy face anyone's ever seen. It will be absolutely brutal.
The critics weren't kind to Damien Hirst's latest collection, which was exhibited at the Wallace Collection. It doesn't seem to have mattered. All news is good news in Hirst-land, as evidenced by the sales of his most recent effort. Hirst opened a new show yesterday at White Cube. Even if the media isn't crazy about his, the artist's collectors haven't ended the love affair. Five of the seven largest pieces in his new "Nothing Matters" collection sold before the show opened, with the highest-priced piece hitting $15.7 million, despite an initial point of only 235,000 pounds.
The show runs at White Cube through January 20, 2010, but you'll have to accept that you'll be checking out what is now other people's property. Hirst collectors are nothing if not loyal.
Capcom's clearly had enough of people just not getting what Dark Voidis all about. So, it put together this latest trailer for the game which clears up any confusion. Is it a puzzle game? No. Dating sim? Nay. RPG? Well, only in that you play the role of a guy with a jetpack who can do a whole buncha stuff, all of which is summarized with big letters and clips of the character doing what said letters say he's doing.
If, after viewing the video, you're still not clear on what Dark Void is about, we suspect Capcom's next step will be to come to your home and demo it for you. Or it could just release a demo. Yeah, that'd work.
In England, specifically Titchfield, Hampshire a small family jeweler has taken it upon themselves to create the most expensive Christmas ornament in the world.
According to Mark Hussey as reported in the Telegraph, a partner in Hallmark Jewellers he had a vision about making something special and had done some research into the priciest ornaments currently available. He had been working on the piece for almost a full year starting just after Boxing Day 2008, which is traditionally the day after Christmas. Even though they would love to find a buyer for the fabulous piece he did mention that he wouldn't mind finding this special ornament on his own tree come Christmas Eve.
The ornament itself is composed of 18 carat white gold and is studded with over one and half thousand diamonds. Two rings consisting of 188 red rubies surround the body of the ornament. It took over 130 hours just to set the gems in the piece. The National Association of Goldsmiths independently valued the bauble at 82,000 British pounds which depending on the exchange rate is just over $130,000. All of this hard work and expensive gemstones are not going unprotected. In something out of a James Bond movie the decorative ornament is encased in a special container framed in steel an 6mm thick laminated glass. If the alarm is triggered a internal signal will fill the shop with smoke.
Will the name Hallmark become associated with Christmas the way Faberge is permanently linked to gorgeously designed and bejeweled Easter eggs? Only time will tell, but if you'd like a very splashy ornament for your tree you know where to look.
Are you a mage using Scorchio? Having some problems with it in patch 3.3? You're not alone. Empowered Fire has some workarounds for you.
Hunters aren't the only ones with a gear guide for patch 3.3. Penance Priest has one for assassination rogues, too! No, I'm kidding, it's for discipline priests.
Nintendo's Q1 release schedule is as packed with new information as all Nintendo release schedules are. In addition to the announcements we've already covered, Nintendo confirmed the March 14 date for Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver. Endless Ocean 2, another game Nintendo has been silent about since E3, is now called Endless Ocean: Blue World, and e-divers will be able to start exploring it on February 22.
Some big WiiWare indies are on the way in Q1, including And Yet It Moves and Super Meat Boy. See the full list of releases, including a series of unannounced, Nintendo-published DSiWare games, after the break.
Back in November of 2008, we covered a project called StoryTlr, which put an interesting spin on the traditional lifestreaming concept. Instead of simply listing all of your updates from various networks and sources, StoryTlr lets you repackage that content so that it tells a story.
The platform and project had some really interesting ideas, but in October the founders of the project — Laurent and Alard — announced that StoryTlr would be shutting down on December 31. There just wasn’t enough time or commercial interest to sustain the service. However, in a pretty classy move, the guys have open sourced the platform, meaning that existing users can download all of their data and migrate to a self-hosted solution. It also means that people who might have never even used StoryTlr can play around with some of its features.
The first version of StoryTlr is now available from a Google Code repository, with installation instructions and answers to frequently asked questions.
StoryTlr is being released under the Apache 2 license, which means users can even use it for commercial projects. Laurent and Alard plan to keep updating and monitoring the codebase over the next few weeks until a stable 1.0 is available.
If you’ve always wanted to have a way to aggregate and lifestream your different online activities — but you actually want to own the data and control where and how it appears — you might want to give StoryTlr a look. The shuttering of hosted services is just one of those things that happens on the Internet. We like that StoryTlr gave its users advanced notice, made it easy to export their existing data and have now open sourced the platform so that individuals can build their own copies or even extend the idea.
You can't beat free online e-mail. You want a different e-mail address for every day of the week? You got it. Need separate accounts for those sites you just know are going to spam you like there's no tomorrow? No problem.
No problem, that is, until those sites go down, which is exactly what happened to Microsoft yesterday. Most users of the company's Windows Live suite of tools, which includes the free online e-mail client Hotmail, were unable to access the site for much of the day, leaving them with no way to look at all of their spam.
The outage was total, leaving the service's 260 million subscribers with nothing but a "Service Unavailable" message when they attempted to view the site.
Today, we're happy to report, things seem to be back up and working correctly -- if a bit slowly. Spam ahoy.
There's been an immense amount of crosstalk, speculation, and just plain noise over the past 48 hours about a device allegedly called the Nexus One, or as it's more commonly known: the Google Phone. We've heard all sorts of reports about the HTC-made device, and figured it might be helpful to put together a little roundup about what we know -- and don't -- on one of the potentially more exciting devices we've seen recently. Read on for an exploration of what this device could mean, as well as a little editorial perspective on some of those "confirmed" stories of the day!
Don't get your hopes up too much just yet, but it looks like you might one day no longer need to detangle a USB cable or fiddle with a plastic dock adapter the next time you want to charge or sync your iPhone or iPod. That's if this recently revealed patent application for a new type of universal dock from Apple turns into an actual product, at least. The secret to the dock, such as it is, is that the base would be made of an elastic, sponge-like substance that could conform to any device and hold it in place. What's more, the dock would apparently even be able retain the imprint of your device for convenient use next time, and be reset at the push of the button to let you use it with another device -- we're not quite sure how this thing is supposed to hold up a tablet, though.
DiRT 2 lives up to its namesake by offering an intense off-road rally car racing experience for fans looking for a slight change of pace from paved circuit racing games. Although some tracks include some paved roads, players spend the majority of their time on dry, dusty roads, sliding sideways almost as often as driving straight. The loose driving surface can be a lot for new players to get used to, but it won't be long until players find themselves competing against the best for cash and prestige.
Now, according to a blog post from Google, the deal is done, and the city of L.A. is now officially in the cloud, with 34,000 of the city’s employees switching to Google’s online services for e-mail and collaboration.
In the post, Google highlights the upsides of cloud computing:
“The cloud computing system will improve the security and reliability of city email, transitioning from servers in the City Hall basement to hosted, secure data centers. Employees will also have a new avenue for collaboration with Google Apps in the cloud: sharing docs, sites and videos and editing them together in realtime as they work on making the city run more smoothly and efficiently and thus better serving Angelenos city-wide. Furthermore, (…) moving to Apps would mean less taxpayer money spent on IT – valuable budget that can be rededicated to other city efforts over the next few years.”
Be that as it may, cloud computing carries certain perils; one only needs to remember the recent T-Mobile/Microsoft Sidekick fiasco, where customer data residing in the cloud was almost lost forever. As large corporate and government-related entities switch to cloud computing, mistakes like that will be greeted with very little tolerance.
In the video below, L.A.’s Chief Technology Officer Randi Levin talks about the details of the deal.
Europe getting Dante's Inferno 'Death Edition,' includes playable Isaac Clarke originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
In England, specifically Titchfield, Hampshire a small family jeweler has taken it upon themselves to create the most expensive Christmas ornament in the world. 
