Any ship approaching Kirkwall will first see the cliffs – the “wall” that the city is named for – from many miles off. This sheer cliff is made of the same black stone that the city was built on, a pantheon of vile guardians representing the Old Gods carved into its face. Over the years the Chantry has effaced many of these profane sentinels, but it is next to impossible to destroy them all.

A channel has been carved into this cliff, allowing ships to sail through a dark corridor with sheer walls hundreds of feet high into the city’s interior. Flanking either side of this channel are the “twins of Kirkwall”, two massive bronze statues that are present for more than show: the city sits next to the narrowest point of the Waking Sea, and a massive chain net can be erected between the statues and the lighthouse on the nearest outcropping of rock that marks the edge of the narrow navigable lane. This stranglehold on sea traffic is jealously guarded by the ever-changing rulers of the city for the wealth of tolls, taxes and extortions it has allowed; the transitory politics of Kirkwall are as brutal and treacherous as the sea currents below.

Kirkwall/Strider Concept Art

Strider

These huge spider-like creatures stand on four massive legs and can move with surprising speed. Spitting corrosive poison and able to leap after prey, these creatures are deadly guardians, often associated with the lost, ancient elven culture of Arlathan and the times before that the elves have lost to history.

Visit Dragon Age 2 Official website

However, in the most recent Bungie Weekly update, Bungie wrote, “Next stop, Gamescom. Bring a change of pants, people. You’re gonna need ‘em.” This defiantly sounds like Bungie will have something new in store for us regarding Halo Reach during their appearance at the Gamescom. But what could it be?

After doing some research, a rumor has been found stating that Bungie could possibly reveal a 7th Game Mode available in Halo Reach. As of now, we have no idea what the Game Mode could possibly be. The Gamescom starts on August 18 and ends on August 22nd. It looks like we will have to wait until Thursday to see what Bungie really has for us. However one thing is for sure, what ever Bungie is hiding is something big.

Studio head Ken Levine was on hand at the event to introduce his latest project through both a trailer and an extended demo. The trailer is something of a tease. It begins by showing what looks like the ocean’s floor and a city suspended under water. But the image turns out to be an illusion, as viewers are simply seeing a piece of memorabilia from the World’s Fair in Chicago through the eyes of the protagonist as he is being drowned in a fish tank.

The camera follows his gaze as he is thrown to the ground and then out of a window by a hulking, mechanized creature that looks like a precursor to the Big Daddy. As the character falls we’re shown a beautiful panorama of a floating city held aloft by massive hot air pouches. The character crashes atop a zeppelin and struggles to cling to its canvas sides before losing his grip and plummeting downward.

His fall is stopped by a floating bed of roses being controlled by a beautiful, dark-haired woman on the balcony of a passing building. She reels him in through force of will before being grabbed from behind by another one of the mechs, leaving the character in the trailer to fall to his death. Like the original BioShock trailer that showed viewers a grizzly version of their own death in that game, this world isn’t looking to treat you any nicer. You can see all of this unfold for yourself by clicking below to watch the trailer.

The setting for BioShock Infinite may seem even more fantastic and technologically advanced than rapture, but it’s set in 1912, years before the events of the first game. In this adventure you play as Booker DeWitt, a disgraced former private detective who’s picked up a new case. Your goal is to find a young woman who’s gone missing and return her unharmed. The only problem is that she’s being kept on the flying city of Columbia.

In 1900, Columbia is unveiled as a symbol of America’s success as a nation. It floats around the world as a traveling World’s Fair, a marvel of human innovation. But an international incident involves the city and it turns out that the airborne metropolis is also heavily armed. A confrontation occurs, and Columbia disappears into the clouds. DeWitt’s lead in the case knows how to find Columbia, and how to find Elizabeth. The problem is that the city’s inhabitants aren’t that willing to let her, and her very strange abilities, just walk away.

The demo that followed the trailer was so packed with action, so dense with hints and nods to what we might experience in this game, that it was difficult to process it all. The first thing that is readily apparent is how visually impressive the title is. The same shiny water effects, sharp textures, and impressive art design as in BioShock, but there are improvements everywhere. The most significant of these improvements is the sense of scale. No longer are you trapped in small claustrophobic settings. Columbia is massive, and the separate floating city blocks drift through the air all around you. It’s just one of the things made possible by the completely new engine developed for the game.

As the demo begins, DeWitt walks through the cobblestone streets of Columbia. Sun plays off of the buildings, leaves float through the air, and the view smacks of an early Americana. But like Rapture, something awful has happened here and death is just around the corner. A despondent man drives by in a half broken down carriage and a horse lies dead in the street as crows pick at its flesh. A separate section of the city floats just above, then shrugs and collapses in front of DeWitt, nearly crushing him. Another man sits on a park bench surrounded by the same black birds.

DeWitt follows the sound of a political speech to a town covered in picket signs. The messaging is clear, the citizens must take up arms to protect their rights from the anarchists. Wooden barrels filled with guns line the gazebo that a politician named stall is stumping from. As DeWitt approaches Stall, the man’s eyes flare red, the air around him vibrates and he calls upon the citizens of Columbia to attack.

DeWitt goes for one of the weapons and comes up with a sniper rifle just as the man from the park bench unleashes a flock of attacking crows at him. DeWitt fights back and sends him careening over a railing as Stall latches onto a floating rail system and heads for another section of floating city off in the distance. DeWitt peers over the edge to find the crow man dead on a platform below, but he psychically pulls a tonic called Murder of Crows to his hand, takes a gulp, and gains the ability to control the birds. A blood covered raven perches on his hand with pieces of meat still hanging from its beak.

The previous sequence goes by in a flash, but it highlights some important features of BioShock Infinite. DeWitt can seemingly psychically push and pull almost everything around him. There are gas containers, pots and pans, and most importantly weapons, all of which he can manipulate at will. In one scene, he yanks a shotgun from a man’s hands from a distance then turns it around and pulls the trigger. Also, when Stall turns tail, DeWitt tracks him for a moment with the sniper rifle, showing off just how large the city is. Mere specks in the distance are targetable and can fire back.

The aforementioned rail system is called the skyline and it connects all of Columbia’s floating islands. It was constructed as a way to transport cargo but now the citizens of Columbia and DeWitt use a grappling device to slide along the rails at a break-neck speed. And this isn’t just “grinding” ala Ratchet and Clank. Players can change rails and direction on the fly, engaging in combat as they ride the roller coaster-like tracks.

Stall has escaped to a part of the city equipped with gigantic canons, and he takes aim at DeWitt. The city explodes around DeWitt and forces him to hop onto the rails, riding first upward then accelerating down and around a bend. A deranged citizen comes at him on the opposite rail and DeWitt readies a hammer, pummeling the man through the air and into the side of a building, leaving a bloody splotch as he bounces off and downward.

DeWitt lands back on solid ground and enters a tavern to an audience that becomes almost immediately violent. What follows is a flood of combat that shows DeWitt psychically disarming characters, blasting them with gunfire, and releasing swarms of crows on a crowd of enemies. The sequence ends with a familiar lightning power used to fry enemies in their boots. When DeWitt confronts Stall a second time he stops one of the mortars fired at him with a wave of his hand, then turns it back on the gun and blows it to hell.

It’s at this point that the attacking city folk start looking like a mob. The new engine can currently throw about 15 enemies at players at the same time. It’s a good thing players will have some help. At this point in the demo DeWitt is joined by Elizabeth, the woman he’s been sent to liberate from Columbia and she has some powers of her own.

Not only does Elizabeth react to the combat, she helps by using her own powers to add elements to the environments. In one sequence, she sends a rain cloud over a mob of enemies giving DeWitt’s lightning an extra kick if he decides to use it. And he does have a choice. Elizabeth’s actions will never directly kill people off, so she won’t do all of the work for you. And according to the developers she won’t get in the way either as players can choose to ignore her actions and handle threats themselves.

As DeWitt and Elizabeth head toward a bridge, they get pinned down by gunfire behind stacks of what look like kitchen supplies. Elizabeth somehow turns the metallic cookware into a cyclone and then fuses it into a molten ball of metal, instructing DeWitt to launch it at their enemies using the game’s version of a Force Push. The plan works, but it’s at this point that the two are introduced to BioShock Infinite’s version of a Big Daddy.

These creatures have a human head set atop a large mechanized body. Their visible heart is encased in glass and their oversized bodies have something of a steampunk aesthetic, only slightly less advanced. Bullets don’t seem to do much to the behemoths so Elizabeth and DeWitt try to bring down the bridge around the threat. She shoots a beam of light at the top of the structure (perhaps the same heat ray she used on the pots and pans) and DeWitt sends an explosive towards it to bring the whole thing down. As the hulking enemy tries to claw its way off the collapsing bridge a few more shotgun blasts send it into the abyss.

Elizabeth collapses in exhaustion after the encounter and a trickle of blood runs out of her nose. Her actions are extraordinary, but they also drain her physically. She needs DeWitt’s help if they’re going to take on the entire city.

DeWitt exclaims that the “thing” is what had been chasing Elizabeth. She corrects him and points towards the sky, at a much larger, much more ominous threat. A giant mechanical bird-like creature swoops down from a building, crushing DeWitt, leaving the screen black and ending the demo.

The demo showed off quite a lot for a game’s debut. It gave us a look at a completely new setting among the clouds and a BioShock game with two compelling characters. Levine promises that by introducing two well-defined main characters, BioShock Infinite will make a huge leap in storytelling when compared to its predecessors. Though there was nothing revealed about the economic elements of Infinite or any hacking puzzles, this was just a first look. There’s a lot more still to be revealed.

BioShock Infinite is scheduled to be released in 2012 for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC so it may be a while before all of the wondrous secrets of the flying city of Columbia are known.

Source: IGN.com

32-year-old Dede, who lives in a remote village in Indonesia with his two children, feared that he would be killed by the tree-like growths that cover his body.

Known locally as ‘Tree Man’ his condition has baffled local doctors for 20 years.

He has root like structures growing out of his body – branches that can grow up to 5cm a year and which protrude from his hands and feet, and welts covering his whole body.

In an attempt to earn a living to support his family, he is part of a circus troupe, displaying his Tree Man limbs along with others afflicted with skin deformities in ‘freak’ shows.

The former fisherman was the subject of a documentary “Half Man Half Tree”, part of the “My Shocking Story” series on Discovery Channel TV.

Dede’s story began when wart-like “roots” started growing out of his arms and feet after he cut his knee in a teenage accident. The medical world was completely baffled.

The welts spread rapidly across his body and soon he was not able to carry out ordinary household tasks.

Dede was sacked from his job and deserted by his wife. He has been raising two children, now in their late teens, in poverty. He is resigned to the fact that local doctors have no cure for his condition.

To try to support his family he even joined a local “freak show”, parading in front of a paying audience along with victims of other peculiar diseases.

While he has the support of his extended family, he has frequently been a target of ridicule and abuse in rural fishing village where he lives.

But now new hope has emerged for Dede after an American dermatology expert flew out to his home village south of the capital Jakarta.

Dr. Anthony Gaspari of the University of Maryland claims to have identified Dede’s condition, and has proposed a treatment that could completely change his life.

Following the testing of samples of the lesions and Dede’s blood, Dr. Gaspari says his condition is caused by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). This is a fairly common infection that usually causes small warts to develop on sufferers.

Dede’s problem is that he has a rare genetic fault that impedes his immune system. This means his body is unable to contain the warts.

According to Dr. Gaspari, the virus was able to “hijack the cellular machinery of his skin cells”, instructing them to produce huge amounts of the substance that caused the tree-like growths known as “cutaneous horns” on both his hands and feet.

The doctor became involved in the case through the Discovery Channel documentary, and he is convinced that Dede’s condition can be largely cleared up by a daily doses of a synthetic form of Vitamin A, which has been demonstrated to stop the growth of warts in severe cases of HPV.

Dr. Gaspari said that Dede’s warts should reduce in size to the point where he can use his hands. He said he had never seen anything like this in his entire career.

On July 4, 2008, the first conceptual art was released for the game. The first trailer was released on July 14, 2008. New concept art and screenshots for the game were released the next day. The developers held a Q&A on the same day, where players could ask questions about the gameplay and other aspects of the game. Other interviews and information about the game have also come online. It was revealed on their Myspace page that the first public demo of the game would be shown during Comic-Con International. Other interviews have also been found regarding the game. Information about the games’ reveal at Comic-Con have also surfaced. A making of DCUO video has been released.DCUO was also shown and playable in Pre-Alpha form at major conventions throughout 2009, such as New York Comic Con, E3 and Comic-Con International. The game has been scheduled for release in November 2010.

A second telling of the character by Robert E. Howard, “Conan” is the story  of a Cimmerian barbarian named Conan (Jason Momoa) and his adventures across the continent of Hyboria on a quest to avenge the murder of his father and the slaughter of his village at the hands of Khalar Singh (Avatar’s Stephen Lang).

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It looks like we won’t be getting that big screen version of Uncharted next year after all.

The Los Angeles Times reports that negotiations have broken down between Sony and Three Kings director David O. Russell to helm the game-to-film adaptation. The paper claims that the parties have gone their separate ways, and that this effectively kills any chance of seeing a Drake’s Fortune movie in theaters by summer 2011, as Sony had previously hoped to do.

“Producers and the studio are going back to the drawing board. They’ll look for a new director — and first they may even look for a star or two to join the project,” said the Times. “With the male and female co-leads, it’s essentially a two-hander, so expect the casting process to be involved.”

Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (Sahara, the new Conan the Barbarian) penned the script.

Ryan Reynolds stars as Hal Jordan, a cocky test pilot who becomes a ring-wearing intergalactic superhero in this massive sci-fi epic from director Martin Campbell (Casino Royale). Though Reynolds has prior experience in the superhero realm from his role as Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, playing Green Lantern involved some major challenges, like getting hurled through the air on a wire at up to 60 feet per second to create the illusion of flight. “The first time you do it, you’re seriously considering an adult diaper,” Reynolds says. Still, he couldn’t resist the chance to play the beloved DC Comics hero, whose power ring can conjure virtually anything he can dream up. “Will and imagination are his superpowers,” Reynolds says. “We need a circus of Timothy Learys to think of things Hal would invent with his ring.”

Green Lantern is scheduled to hit theaters on June 17, 2011 and also stars Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Tim Robbins, Mark Strong, Taika Waititi, Temuera Morrison, Angela Bassett, Jay O. Sanders and Jon Tenney.

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Users who have already bought Apple’s cases, called “Bumpers,” will get the US$30 price refunded.

Jobs also said that iPhone 4 owners who are still unhappy with the device can exchange them for full refunds.

Spreading the Happiness

Every iPhone 4 buyer will get a free case, Jobs announced. However, not all cases will be Apple’s Bumpers because the company can’t make enough. So it will source some other cases and give users a choice.

Owners of iPhone 4s will be able to apply for a free case on Apple’s website starting late next week, Jobs said. People who have already purchased their own Bumpers will get a refund. The offer applies to every iPhone 4 purchased through Sept. 30.

Customers who are still dissatisfied can get a full refund for their iPhone 4 provided they bring it back undamaged within 30 days of the purchase.

There will be no restocking fee.

We’re Good but Not Perfect

Jobs began his speech with a disclaimer.

“You know we’re not perfect,” he said. “And phones aren’t perfect either.”

However, he pointed out that Apple has sold well over 3 million iPhone 4s since it was launched three weeks ago and that the device has had the highest customer satisfaction rating of any iPhone or smartphone.

Only 0.55 percent of iPhone 4 customers have called AppleCare complaining about their antenna, Jobs said. Further, the return rate for the iPhone 4 at AT&T (NYSE: T) is only 1.7 percent, as compared to the 6 percent return rate chalked up by the iPhone 3GS, he pointed out.

Even the call-drop rates for the iPhone 4 aren’t as bad as reported, Jobs remarked.

The data shows that the iPhone 4 drops more calls per hundred than the iPhone 3GS, Jobs explained. However, the iPhone 4 drops about one call more per hundred than the iPhone 3GS, he said.

Let’s Get Together and Feel Not All Right

Jobs also pointed out that other smartphone owners experience poor reception when they hold their devices in a certain way, just as iPhone 4 owners do. These devices include the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and the HTC Droid Eris, he pointed out.

The problem is not unique to the iPhone 4, and most smartphones behave exactly the same way, he said. It’s a challenge for the entire industry.

The problem is partly the Federal Communications Commission’s fault, Chris Hazelton, a research director at the 451 Group, told MacNewsWorld.

“This is a design flaw that impacts other smartphones, and it’s partly due to the mandate by the FCC that the antenna needs to be as far away from the user’s brain as possible,” Hazelton explained.

“Apple did expose an issue that exists throughout the industry,” Maribel Lopez, principal analyst and founder of Lopez Research, told MacNewsWorld. “I think they should’ve waited to release the phone but I understand how they weren’t sure how big an issue this would become.”

Solving the Problem

Apple released iOS 4.0.1 on Thursday to fix one problem with the iPhone 4 — the faulty rendering of signal strength on the display, Jobs pointed out. It also fixed a “nasty” bug for Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) exchange, he said.

Apple is also working on fixing some problems it found with the iPhone 4′s proximity sensor.

This is on top of the refunds and free case offers.

Jobs also said Apple was “stunned and upset and embarrassed” by the comments from Consumer Reports, which earlier this week refused to endorse the iPhone 4 because of its reception problems. The publication called on Apple to take action.

“Consumers deserve answers and fairness,” Consumer Reports spokesperson Lauren Hackett said about Jobs’ speech. “Providing free Bumpers and cases is a good first step toward Apple identifying and finding a solution for the signal-loss problem of the iPhone 4.”

It Don’t Come Easy

The free cases will cost Apple quite a pretty penny.

“If 20 percent of the 3 million iPhone 4 purchasers left the store with a $30 Bumper, that will come up to $18 million in refunds alone,” Lopez pointed out. “But at the end of the day, Apple will have done the right thing, although it will probably have to pay only $5 to $10 a case.”

Apple is doing everything it can short of issuing a recall, the 451 Group’s Hazelton said.

“A recall at this point wouldn’t help because Apple has nothing else to provide,” Hazelton explained. “It’s in a tough spot but this whole thing is an issue because Apple is a huge target, there are lots of people out there using its very expensive product, and it has a very high level of expectations.”

As Apple continues to grow, it may find itself under an ever-harsher limelight.

“Everybody loves a failure after a string of successes,” Carl Howe, director of anywhere consumer research at the Yankee Group, told MacNewsWorld. “As Apple becomes the largest technology company in the world, the environment will probably become more hostile to it.”

However, the company seems to have learned its lessons well, Howe pointed out.

Jobs’ speech was “classic brand protection,” Howe remarked. “You admit that you have a problem, you put out the facts as you see them, you recognize that not everyone will agree with you and you make them feel good anyway,” he explained.

Source: technewsworld.com

BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk confirmed that BioWare still has “pretty big plans” for Mass Effect 2 DLC, despite having already released multiple scenario and weapons packs for the RPG.

“We still have more DLC in the plan for Mass 2,” he said, speaking to us at Develop in Brighton today. “The last ones were really well received. People were really, really impressed with the Overlord Pack, and the Kasumi one did really well too.

“It’s something we’re going to continue to do.”

Zeschuk said that things were probably going to slow down a little, but assured upcoming content would be substantial.

“It’s at the point where it’ll probably diminish a little bit, but there are still some pretty big plans for DLC,” he added.

“It’s doing really well. Overall it’s something we’ll definitely continue doing.”

As well as introducing content packs, such as Aegis earlier this month, BioWare has also released larger DLC involving gameplay like Overlord has clearly gone down well with fans.

The developer is now hard at work on Mass Effect 3, but assured earlier this year that the story between the second and third games would be told through DLC.

Source: vg247.com