RIM CEO Thorsten Heins has hit back at a recent NY Times article that interviewed a number of disgruntled BlackBerry owners. In a letter published by the newspaper on Wednesday, Heins accused the piece of lacking balance and said there were still "millions of BlackBerry fans out there."

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins must have had smoke coming out of his ears when he read a New York Times article on Monday entitled The BlackBerry as Black Sheep.

His company is struggling, for sure, but he’s hoping it can turn things around with the launch of its next-generation operating system, BlackBerry 10, early next year. Until then, he needs to hold on to his customers, and prevent the company’s image from being bashed about any more than it is right now. His heart will have sunk when he read the NY Times piece.

It pretty much ripped into the phone maker, interviewing users who had apparently become embarrassed about pulling their BlackBerry phone out of their bag. “I’m ashamed of it,” said one, who claimed to hide her device under her iPad for fear of being judged by clients.

Another said she wanted to “take a bat to it,” which, let’s be honest, seems like something of an overreaction when it comes to feelings about a mobile device. There were a few favorable words towards the end of the piece from a BlackBerry owner called Mr. Fenton who said he couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about when it came to the iPhone, but in case the reader might start to think that perhaps RIM’s phones weren’t so bad after all, the article finished off with someone called Mr. Mindel laying the boot in, saying, “I’m considering removing my BlackBerry battery, pouring in cement, and using the BlackBerry as an actual paperweight.” You get the picture. 

So imagine Heins in his office earlier this week, NY Times in hand, reading this article. Of course he wasn’t going to let this go without saying something. He hammered out a response and on Wednesday the newspaper published it.

In his letter, Heins accused the publication of lacking “the balance your readers expect,” before going on to explain that carriers and partners around the world have recently told him “there are millions of BlackBerry fans out there who not only find great value in their device, but also pride in being a BlackBerry owner.”

He says that he takes reports of dissatisfaction among BlackBerry users very seriously, adding that he was encouraged by the supportive comments received in response to the NY Times article.

After trotting out a couple of stats, Heins ends his letter confirming that RIM is on track to deliver BlackBerry 10 in the first quarter of 2013, and offers thanks to “the customers who have remained loyal to the BlackBerry platform.” He also says RIM is looking forward to “winning back many who have left.”

Heins is all too aware that having nothing to show for at least another 10 weeks gives BlackBerry bashers ample time to keep on bashing, and that what RIM must do is keep current users on board while trying to put a positive spin on a very difficult situation. Of course, there will be those who say RIM has done a decent job of beating itself up in recent years with various PR blunders and missteps, but Heins is steering the ship now and is doing everything in his power to save the company from collapse.

A hands-on preview of the Asus PadFone 2, an innovative device that combines a smartphone with a tablet, and somehow does appear to give us the best of both worlds.

There can’t be all that many people who don’t think that, in principle, the idea of the PadFone 2 is a good one. After all, it combines the two most popular — and fastest growing — consumer electronics markets into one handy device. At the PadFone 2’s launch event today, I had the chance to spend some time playing with Asus’s unusual device, and while it’s still not exactly clear at whom it’s aimed, it’s a clever machine with considerable potential for the future. Asus’s tagline for the tablet is “It’s intuitive.” I have to agree.

The first thing you notice about the smartphone is how light it is, feeling lighter in the hand than both the Galaxy S3 and iPhone 4, despite them all being within a couple of grams of each other. The phone is made of plastic, as is the brushed metal-look band around the edge, and since the rear panel is non-removable, the battery won’t be able to be swapped out for a new one.

Installed on the PadFone 2 at the event was Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), but an upgrade to Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) should be coming in December. This means the European PadFone 2, which should arrive early next year, will most likely come with the latest version of Android already installed.

Quad-core power

The Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor gives the smartphone incredible performance. Even without Jelly Bean’s “Project Butter,” scrolling was smooth and precise, and video was expertly handled. Scrolling could still be “sticky” in the browser though. A 1.5GB HD video file could be scrubbed back and forth with no delays in playback, and when the Adreno 320 GPU was put to work on a Need for Speed game, it looked stunning.

Grasping the tapered body of the PadFone 2’s phone section, it’s simple to slot it into the tablet and in fact, you don’t even need to look at what you’re doing. This makes perfect sense when you consider the sharing aspect of the PadFone 2, as you can be looking at a photo on the phone, which then appears on the tablet’s screen almost instantly when you dock them together. Fiddling around on the back of the tablet would spoil this experience completely.

Slotting the phone into the tablet station is precise and satisfying, and ends with a positive push to lock it into place, feeling not unlike docking an iPhone into a well-made audio dock. It’s not going anywhere either, as even turning it upside down and shaking it about failed to see the phone slip out and clatter onto the floor.

Instant sharing, with a catch

Using the tablet is a very similar experience to using the phone as it’s the same OS, but with this comes a slight drawback — the browser wants to open mobile websites. Visiting DigitalTrends.com, the BBC and YouTube on the tablet resulted in exactly that happening, but a better YouTube experience could be had using the standalone app. This is a problem on most Android tablets.

The instant sharing is also flawed at the moment, as it only works with certain applications. Say you’re reading a website using Chrome on the smartphone, but decide you want to read it on the larger screen, so you plug it into the tablet station. Sadly, it doesn’t just appear and you need to open Chrome as usual. Sure, your content is there straight away, but it adds a step or two to the process. The answer is to use the standard browser instead, which does instantly start when you dock the two devices, as does the gallery, the camera app, Google Play and the standard email app too. But generally, if you’re doing something on your phone before you plug it in, prepare to have to re-open that task.

Asus says that many apps are undergoing a certification process, so by the time the PadFone 2 goes on sale, this could all change. Hopefully it will, as it’s one of the standout features of the device.

Intuitive and pleasantly surprising

Using the PadFone 2 for only a short time confirms that Asus is right to call it intuitive, primarily because of the instant sharing feature and the easy docking, but learning the ins-and-outs of the lightly skinned Android OS was a breeze too. This, along with the all-in-one nature of the PadFone 2, makes it a good choice for anyone new to smartphones and tablets.

Such simplicity, design innovation and power doesn’t come cheap though, with the 32GB model priced at 800 euros ($1,042) for the smartphone and the tablet station. Before you snort derisively at this figure, think about this: A 32GB iPhone 5 costs 790 euros on its own, and you’re stuck with that battery and that screen size. Add a 32GB Wi-Fi and Cellular iPad and you’ll need another 700 euros, giving a total of 1,488 euros ($1,940) for the pair. Pop over to Amazon for a SIM-free Galaxy S3 and a Galaxy Note 10.1 and you’ll still need the best part of 1,100 euros.

So, although the initial outlay sounds like a lot, that’s quite a savings when you consider how much buying two separate devices to emulate the PadFone 2’s abilities costs. It is, however, still a big price for a relative newcomer to ask for an quirky product. It could also be saved if U.S. wireless carriers decide to subsidize the phone and tablet combo deeply enough, it could be quite affordable. But with how badly the Motorola Atrix + Laptop Dock were priced, it’s difficult to be hopeful.

In the short time I had with the PadFone 2, it was certainly winning me over, and it’s impossible not to be impressed by the Snapdragon S4 Pro’s performance. I have the feeling a lot of people are going to be surprised by the PadFone 2, it just takes an open mind, a calculator and good, solid test run.

Video playing on the PadFone 2

The PadFone 2 camera

Bethesda and id Software are back to celebrate the 20th anniversary of one of the biggest gaming franchises the world, with an HD remake of Doom 3 and a bundle that contains the entire history of the series

According to many, the end of western civilization began in 1993. Id Software’s Doom had just been released, and the gore mixed with the satanic imagery prompted cries of moral corruption. It could be used as a “mass murder simulator” they said. Don’t let your children play it, or they may go berserk and eat your face. The years have not been kind to those alarmists, and the object of their scorn has far outlived the cries that children would be forever warped by the original game.

It has been nearly 20 years since that first Doom dropped onto PCs, and soon found its name being echoed throughout the halls of Congress. As history so often does, looking back at the concerns raised by the game, we have to shake our heads at some of the reactions. It seems foolish to be concerned with a game like Doom, especially considering how far games have come and how much more graphic the violence in games has become. Shooting a pixilated brown figure with teeth and seeing red is nothing compared to the creative ways you can slaughter countless digital people these days. If you could bring one of the early Doom critics to our day and play a game like Dishonored, which is considered relatively tame by modern standards, their brain may shut down completely when they witness you casually stab someone in the neck.

To commemorate 20 years of glorious violence, id Software and their new (to the franchise) publishing partner Bethesda have released a compilation featuring all the Doom you could ever hope for on one disc, including a remastered version of Doom 3 and an entirely new expansion as well.

Included on the Doom 3 BFG disc are the original Doom, Doom 2, and Doom 3, including the original expansion pack Resurrection of Evil and a new offering called The Lost Mission. Along with HD graphics, Doom 3 also features competitive multiplayer, co-op support, and has been optimized for 3D.

Whether or not this bundle will appeal to you is entirely a matter of whether or not you are already a fan of Doom. If you are not, there really isn’t anything here that will convince you otherwise, but id isn’t trying to win you over. This is a collection for longtime fans that have been with the franchise for decades, and who are hungrily awaiting the debut of Doom 4 — which could be as soon as next year, or could be released in a few years as a next-gen title. 

The original Doom and Doom 2 are recreated in all their glory. The new bundle doesn’t mess with the formula, and those that have tried the XBL and PSN ports will have already played these offerings. The real attraction of this bundle – beyond just having all the Doom games in one place – is the HD version of Doom 3, as well as The Lost Mission.

The original campaign remains essentially the same, for better and worse. Those that didn’t play Doom 3, or played it on the PC, are going to need some time to adjust to the controls, which feel dated by today’s standards and were always a bit odd on consoles. They respond well enough, but little things like the lack of a dedicated melee and the need to put the icon exactly on the “download” button in order to retrieve the numerous pieces of scattered intel (which don’t autoplay, by the way) takes some getting used to. Those that played the game on the Xbox will no doubt remember many of these complaints from the first go round. The game was designed on and for PC, and that legacy affects the console versions to this day. 

One minor change is the inclusion of a flashlight that is mounted on your armor. Previously it was an either-or thing, where you could not illuminate and area and fire at the same time. This could be frustrating, but it also added to the tension. The good of this change far outweighs the bad though.

The multiplayer maps and the co-op add a fair amount of novelty to the game, but heart of Doom has always been built around the single player joy of running at a demon and using a chainsaw on them. The multiplayer is fun, but it isn’t – and never was – what Doom was about.

As for the graphics, the improvements are notable, but you won’t confuse them with current gen games. It is the faces and their weird eyes and mouths that hurts it. The monsters actually look fairly good, but the people are off-putting   The general lack of overall detail is present as well, a typical trait for games remastered. That said, when Doom 3 originally debuted on PC in 2004, it was considered one of the best looking games of its time, and rightly so. Id was working with tools that by our standards are dated, of course, but they managed to squeeze the absolute most out of them and used clever tricks of lighting and shadow to push the hardware of the day to its absolute max. Unsurprisingly, the Xbox version wasn’t on par with the PC version, but it managed a respectable presentation as well. That emphasis on atmospheric design serves this HD remake well.

The extra missions are what should tip the scales in favor of people that are considering the bundle but haven’t decided yet. The Resurrection of Evil expansion has been floating around for a while now, and it remains much as it was when it was released in 2005, just with slightly better graphics. For those that missed it, the story continues that of Doom 3 a few years down the line. It is not nearly as compelling a story as the source material, but the combat remains the highlight and the inclusion is a great addition for those that missed it the first time around — and an excellent boon for those playing Doom 3 for the first time.

The Lost Mission is what should get the attention of most Doom fans, as it is new for this game. Consisting of seven levels from Doom 3, this mission pack is more of a  set of deleted scenes than a true expansion, at least where the story is concerned, but it is a strong addition for fans that love the combat. Like the other Doom 3 content, it has been optimized for 3D. If you enjoy 3D gaming, the depth is good and the game moves well, but it was not designed as a 3D game, so it doesn’t really add much to the overall experience.

Conclusion

Although there are some issues with the game including the same flawed controls and PC-first design decisions, and while the HD graphics aren’t going to fool anyone into thinking Doom 3 was suddenly rebuilt with a modern GPU in mind, the package is strong. Very strong.

I spent a good portion of this review going over the things I didn’t like, but I have saved the most important fact for last: Doom 3 was, and remains a great game. The HD graphics may not blow you away, but the original design was so good, they don’t need much to be immersive. The additional content, including Doom and Doom II is great, but the reason to buy this bundle is Doom 3 and the two expansions.

The Doom 3 BFG Edition isn’t the long awaited sequel we have been hoping for, but it offers enough to tide you over until id finally announced Doom 4.

Most people would say that the Retina Display on the iPhone 5 at 326ppi is impressive, but the newly announced HTC J Butterfly blows that out of the water. Its five-inch 1080p full HD display is rocking a pixel density of 443 pixels per inch (ppi). It’s like taking the monstrous 55-inch HDTV in your living room and scrunching it down to proportions that will fit in your (somewhat larger) pants pocket. Can you imagine having 1920×1080 in something that fits in the palm of your hand?

Continuing with the extra large superphone trend that led to phablets like the Galaxy Note II and LG Intuition, the HTC J Butterfly also has more to offer than just its super-sized Super LCD 3 display. Under the hood is a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor (1.5GHz), a full two gigs of RAM, 16GB internal storage, microSD expansion, 2020mAh battery, Wi-Fi tethering for up to 8 devices, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, HDMI out, and BEATS audio. It also ships with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean right out of the box, overlaid with HTC Sense 4+.

The camera on the back looks like it’s going to be really good too, following in the footsteps of the flagship HTC One X superphone. There’s an 8MP CMOS shooter back there with a wide F2.0 aperture for better low-light performance. There’s also a front-facing 2MP camera for video chats and self portraits. All of this is housed in a phablet that’s just 9.1mm thick and 140 grams.

That’s all good news, except it comes with one giant caveat. It appears that the J Butterfly is being offered exclusively in Japan via KDDI. It’ll use their 4G LTE network that is capable of download speeds of up to 75Mbps. HTC might offer a variant to other markets eventually, but the Japanese model will ship in early December in your choice of black, white or red.

HTC rolls out a new version of the HTC J -- the J Butterfly. The handset will be exclusive to Japan, but comes with a screen that will make the world envious. It's 5-inch display comes packed to the brim with 440ppi resolution.

HTC brought its latest creation to Tokyo today, and now we’re wondering how long it takes a butterfly to fly over the Pacific Ocean. The HTC J Butterfly is the new flagship handset from the Taiwanese phone maker and it comes fully equipped with a screen that you just can’t help but to stare at. There’s plenty to see with the 5-inch HD Super LCD 3 display that is ready to run at 1080p — the highest resolution yet for a phone.

The screen isn’t the only attraction on the J Butterfly, the successor to the HTC J. The black-and-red skinned phone will come running Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). It’s powered by a 1.5GHz Snapdragon quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM and is equipped with a 2020mAh battery that will have its work cut out for it. It’s also loaded with an 8-megapixel camera with a f/2.0 lens. All of this is housed within a thickness of 9.1mm. A quick comparison of the specs makes the J Butterfly most comparable to the One X, the crowd-pleasing offering from HTC released earlier this year.

It’s that screen that puts the J Butterfly in the league of its own, though. The HTC One X came with an impressive Super LCD screen that was worthy of comparison with the best displays on the market. The J Butterfly aims to float above the competition, and may well do so. It’s promising a resolution that reaches 440-pixels per inch (ppi). For comparison purposes, the iPhone 5 sits at 326ppi. I’d hate to be the guy that has to try to pack all those pixels in. That’s how those things work, right?

The J Butterfly will be exclusive to the Japanese market, but that doesn’t mean the Super LCD 3 screen won’t find its way on the front of some U.S.-bound handsets. Until then, we’ll just have to look forward to the day we can wipe the drool off our screen.

By digging through the game's code, fans of Firaxis Games' XCOM: Enemy Unknown have discovered a way to resurrect one of the game's features that the developer's cut from the final release.

During the development of XCOM: Enemy Unknown at Firaxis Games, it was planned that players who complete the game and restart the title’s single player mode would find a special version of XCOM known as “Second Wave.” Similar to the New Game+ feature found in numerous roleplaying titles, Second Wave would have offered seasoned veterans a new gaming experience by rebalancing a number of the game’s standard features.

At some point however, it was decided to cut Second Wave from XCOM, and you won’t find it in the official retail release that hit shelves a short time ago. Unless you’re a dedicated modder, that is.

It seems that a modder calling his or herself “Arietatray” has discovered the remnants of the Second Wave system and after a bit of tweaking has managed to rebuild the feature almost in its entireity. Here’s a list of what this nouveau Second Wave has to offer:

WORKS Damage Roulette: Weapons have a much wider range of damage

New Economy: The funding offered by individual council members is randomized

WORKS Not Created Equally: Rookies will have random starting stats

Hidden Potential: As a soldier is promoted, their stats will increase randomly

BUGGED Red Fog: Any wounds taken in combat will degrade a soldier’s stats for that mission

Absolutely Critical: A flanking shot will guarantee a critical hit

The Greater Good: The secret of psionics can only be learned by interrogating a psionic alien

BUGGED. GAME UNWINNABLE Marathon: The game takes considerably longer to complete

Results Driven: A country will offer less funding as it’s panic level increases 

WORKS High Stakes: The rewards granted for stopping alien abductions are randomized

WORKS Diminishing Returns: The cost of satellites increases with every one that is built

The Blitz: The aliens will target a larger number of cities every time they launch an abduction attack

More Than Human: The psionic gift is extremely rare

Notice those bullet points preceded by bold words like “Works” and “Bugged?” Those are features of the original iteration of Second Wave that were discovered lingering in the code of the game’s PC version. They’ve been recreated for Arietatray’s mod, but given that some of them actually prevent users from completing the game, this mod should be downloaded more as an item of interesting historical significance than as something you hope will reinvigorate your love for the game with all new playing options.

Still, it’s intriguing to look at those options and wonder “What If?” That initial Second Wave system seems to make the game both more difficult and more “realisitic,” so we’re sure that had it been polished it would have had appeal for many fans. Honestly, looking at this list, we have to wonder why Firaxis ever opted to remove the option from XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

If you’re keen to play Second Wave, despite its bugs, the XCOM Nexus offers a pretty comprehensive walkthrough for getting this mod up and running on your PC. Sorry console gamers, but as with most things created by dedicated fans, you’re getting the short end of the stick here.

BioWare has outline the benefits to be given to subscribers once Star Wars: The Old Republic fully transitions to free to play, and the rewards for shelling out cash are pretty substantial.

 

When Star Wars: The Old Republic finally transitions to a free to play MMO model – BioWare is still claiming that this will happen at some point this fall – the game will offer players a chance to play up to level 50 totally free of charge. However, given that there is also a subscription-based gameplay option available, those who aren’t paying anything for the game beyond its initial $15 purchase price will be unable to enjoy certain benefits the game has to offer.

That’s pretty standard for any MMO transitioning to the free to play model in the modern era, but Star Wars: The Old Republic handles things a bit differently. Instead of immediately granting bonuses to subcribers, the game uses a system dubbed “Cartel Coins,” that both benefits paid subscribers and seemingly complicates the game’s subscriber system to a needless degree.

Cartel Coins, as their name suggests, are a form of currency. They’re exclusive to Star Wars: The Old Republic and while they can be used to purchase in-game items, their most important role is in rapidly decreasing the game’s various time sinks. For instance, normally The Old Republic places restrictions on how many PvP missions a player can do in a short period of time by locking them out of the PvP system once they’ve participated in their quota, but by spending Cartel Coins players can unlock more PvP missions immediately. The same goes for the game’s equivalent of high-level raid dungeons.

Still with us? Alright, now that we’ve established what they do, we can get to the interesting part: Cartel Coins are seemingly only available by purchasing them with real-world money or via the rare BioWare show of generosity. Anyone who has ever subscribed to the game currently has an initial cache of Coins, though to redeem them BioWare requires that you have spent some amount of cash to add game time to your subscription account.

Once all of that is set in place, and you’ve spent the coins, your account is then elevated to “preferred” status and you’re given “the ability to run faster (Sprint) starting at Level 1,” “cargo Hold access (Bank Slots) and higher login queue priority,” and “increased access to Chat and Secure Trading.”

So, to recap: While you can play Star Wars: The Old Republic for free at some nebulous, yet supposedly near-term point in the future, it’s going to take you a very, very long time to get up to level 50 and acquire some interesting gear without spending money on Cartel Coins. Thus, while the game is indeed “free to play,” those who spend actual money on The Old Republic will likely have a more fulfilling experience.

More information on the various ins and outs of the free to play scheme BioWare plans to use for Star Wars: The Old Republic is available on the game’s official free to play FAQ.

We take a look at how Supermassive Games is working to deliver horror movie scares for the interactive space in the PlayStation 3-exclusive Until Dawn.

Horror is a tricky thing to get right in the realm of interactive experiences. I think it’s because the genre is frequently at odds with the medium. The most successful horror stories plunge you right into the middle of a dire situation, stripping away any sense of control that you might have in a roller coaster ride of frightful imagery and disturbing ideas. Video games, on the other hand, tend to suffer the most when you strip control away from the player. Survival horror builds tension in its own, unique way, limiting players’ access to resources and pitting them against overwhelming odds, but true horror stories are few and far between in the interactive space.

Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock developer Supermassive Games has some intriguing ideas for solving this problem, and the dev team is putting those ideas to the test in the upcoming, Sony-published interactive fright flick, Until Dawn. Your first step before reading any further should be to watch the Gamescom reveal trailer, which I think very effectively captures the game’s intent and overall feel. It’s cut exactly like you’d expect a horror movie trailer to be cut, implicitly promising a certain type of experience. The implied tone of Until Dawn appears to be coming together in reality as well, at least based on what I saw during a recent eyes-on preview at a PlayStation media event.

Until Dawn embraces the slasher movie trope of teens being hunted in the woods by a malevolent force. The branching narrative follows a group of eight partygoers who are spending some vacation time living it up at a ski lodge. The trip also happens to fall exactly one year after a similar trip that ended with the disappearance of the current group’s friends. You’d think that such a thing would convince these party animals to stay away, but this is a horror story. You’ve got to expect people to do all the dumb things.

Yet Until Dawn isn’t nearly that scripted. The choices that you make and the facts that you discover as you play have a direct effect on who lives and who dies. It’s entirely possible to get through Until Dawn with all eight hearts still beating… or with none of them. The preview I saw didn’t necessarily give me a full sense of these more open-ended elements — largely to preserve spoilers and to keep the experience fresh for one and all — but survival essentially seems to boil down to taking your time and exploring the various environments you’ll visit.

Exploration (and all interactions in general) is currently relegated entirely to the PlayStation 3′s Move controller (just the wand). You experience everything from a first-person perspective, and the Move wand doubles as the flashlight that your character holds in his or her hand. You can’t jump between the different characters at will, but you’ll jump to new perspectives frequently as the story unfolds, a switch that is cleverly realized in game when the flashlight is handed off to another potential victim.

The Move’s trigger button makes you walk/run (depending on the circumstances) in whichever direction the light is pointing, and the top-mounted Move button is used for interacting with objects in the environment. There’s no gamepad support planned for Until Dawn at this time, but the game isn’t due until 2013 and even Supermassive admits that plans may change. It certainly couldn’t hurt to include gamepad controls as well; not every PS3 owner has a Move but they all have at least one SIXAXIS or DualShock 3. Just saying.

Exploration yields information, which in turn helps to up each character’s chances of survival. There’s no in-game indication of this, no meter or percentage rating to inform you of how you’re doing. The world is more immersive than that. You’re examining found clues — using the Move to twist objects around in your hand — and solving puzzles involving lever-pulling and the like. Story is the focus in Until Dawn, but there’s definitely a game to be played here as well.

You might haven noticed that I’m shying away from explicit descriptions of what I saw, and that’s very much deliberate. Supermassive is cooking up a solid story here thanks to the writing efforts of Larry Fessenden, an accomplished Hollywood horror/thriller creator and Fangoria hall of famer. The media demo follows two of the eight partygoers after they’re exiled from the festivities and told to “get a room.” The “room” in this case is a log cabin located a good distance away from the ski lodge. The walk amounts to a slow burn, building tension through occasional jump scares and creepy happenings while establishing the two lovebirds as likable, if slightly obnoxious and immature, characters.

Things take a dark turn shortly after the two reach the cabin. Clues begin to paint connections between this new trip and the previous year’s trip. There’s also the suggestion that a local abandoned mine was the site of some horrific event. Then things really go bad. I won’t spoil it here, but suffice to say that our two characters are confronted by something unexpected and tense moments ensue. You maybe even see a little bit of blood. Personally, I’m hoping that Supermassive holds off on delivering any more previews prior to Until Dawn‘s 2013 release. The game certainly appears to deliver on its promises and, with that formally confirmed, the less we’re told from here on out, the better.

We take a set tour and talk to the cast of Syfy Channel's upcoming TV show, Defiance, a show that is just one piece of a much larger world.

When Defiance launches in April 2013, it will be much more than either Trion Worlds’ newest massively multiplayer online game, or Syfy’s latest science-fiction series. It will be the first-ever true cross-medium entertainment franchise.

It is a massive undertaking, requiring multimedia coordination between two completely separate, and yet now inextricably connected sides of the same property, working towards expanding the same universe following a failed alien invasion that left the Earth a changed place. Trion’s game will take place in the remains of the Bay Area and follow hunters searching for an alien mineral, while the Syfy TV show will focus on survivors in the city known as Defiance. 

Walking around the massive set in Toronto, it’s obvious that the show will have a big-budget feel. And playing the third-person perspective shooter MMO, it’s clear that the last four years of development have resulted in what looks like yet another hit for Trion Worlds in the ultra-competitive online gaming space.

“Defiance is the most exciting thing I’ve ever heard of,” said actor Grant Bowler, who plays Jeb Nolan in both the game and the show. “When I got asked to look at the show, I initially had no idea that we were going to be here doing this. This idea of bringing those media together, TV is in everybody’s home, and we play our games, generally, on our TV at home. It’s a natural fit, but I think it has always seemed so complicated and difficult to do that, it’s been beyond the realm of the possible.”

According to Bill Trost, lead game designer at Trion Worlds, from the very beginning the game developers in San Diego have been working with Syfy as a partner. They’ve had regular calls and meetings and discussions on how to craft this new intellectual property. 

“It’s something we’re excited about,” Trost told us in a recent exclusive interview. “It’s something that hasn’t really been done in that way before.”

It’s taken a lot of work to craft a story that begins in the game world in the Bay Area with two of the protagonists of the TV series leaving the area, then picks up in the show with those same two characters driving into Defiance, which rests atop what was once St. Louis. 

“When I started doing TV in the early ‘90s, the idea of having something that was as immersive and gigantic as this overwhelming mythology would not have been possible,” said Kevin Murphy, who wrote and executive produced Desperate Housewives, Reaper, and now Defiance. “Something like Game of Thrones or Defiance would not have been possible because TV was much more close-ended. Now, with the advent of online, you can really do a lot of things you were not previously able to do. We’re really trying to see how far can we push those boundaries. What can we take advantage of in terms of creating an actual world that is unlike anything that we know today, but at the same time is very familiar.”

Both the show and the game take place 30 years in the future after an alien race known as the Votans attempted to immigrate to Earth. The governments of the Earth decided to turn away the Votans, which led to a disastrous war that partially terraformed the Earth and forced the two races to attempt to peacefully coexist.  Players will enter the universe as “Arc Hunters,” exploring the Bay Area and looking for alien technology that occasionally falls from the sky.  Although there will be TV characters migrating in and out of the game world, because the locations are so far apart there’s plenty of space for two separate stories to be told.

“There are big events and small things that will cross over from game to show,” said Trost. “Everything from the flora and fauna in the game world and the television show matching up, to these huge crossovers with characters both coming from the game world and going into the show, and from the show coming into the game world.”

When the game debuts, the first crossover will already be well under way. 

“I’m finally in two places at one time,” joked Bowler. “My character, Nolan, starts off in the video game and then goes into the series. When we launch the video game, there’s a point where Nolan leaves, and then exactly in that way, we begin the television series. So right from the beginning, there’s a synthesis between the two. The two worlds of game and show are connected, and they’ll stay that way.”

The show features some of the creative minds behind Syfy hits Farscape and Battlestar Galactica, which bodes well for this new series. While the game will focus more on action, the show will involve more character development and drama — and there’s plenty of drama to go around with so many different alien species living together in one town.

“I play Irisa and she’s an Irathient alien [a subspeciaes of the Votans],” explained actress Stephanie Leonidas, who is almost unrecognizable with all the prosthetics on. “There are many species of alien in Defiance. The pilot is about Irisa and Nolan’s journey to Defiance. Nolan is basically her father figure. And then the show picks up from when they get there.”

The series is being filmed in Toronto, where a full-sized recreation of the town of Defiance has been built outside of large sound stage areas.

“What we’ve done up there is build an entire city,” said Bowler. “What’s really exciting about it is, there are different parts of town. There are parts of town that are built from parts of old billboards, bottles, or anything that comes to hand. They’re the more affluent, or commercial parts of town. Then there are the poorer parts of town that are built out of old shipping containers, or pellets and crates. It’s amazing to see this town and to be able to work within this set.”

Thanks to the online game, Syfy is already thinking about season two of the TV series. That’s a luxury that a typical show doesn’t get. Given the success Rift has had in the online space and the positive momentum End of Nations is riding on, the odds are good that the past four years of development will result in a quality Defiance game world. Given the loyalty and devotion that online gamers have to their games, the thinking is that they’ll also gravitate to a TV show that involves the same world and some of the same characters.

“I think there’s a huge appetite for this,” said Leonidas. “It’s exciting to combine both the game world and the TV show. If it all works well, it could be really exciting for people who watch TV and play games. People that have never experienced an online game might want to go play and gamers who don’t watch Syfy may want to watch the show.”

That’s exactly what Syfy and Trion Worlds had in mind when they ventured into this uncharted territory four years ago.

Color has had a spotty history as an over-hyped up app that has floundered since launch, and a report indicates that the startup may soon be closing its doors for good.

According to VentureBeat, Color, the startup with more unsustainable hype than the the world has possibly ever seen, is preparing to go dark. Shareholders and the board have voted to close the company’s doors for good. 

Color has had a spotty history, and was a disappointment after raising $40 million last year from Sequoia Capital and Bain Capital, enjoying what was obviously now a serious overvaluation. Many saw Color’s inevitable demise, despite having received more money from Sequoia Capital than the early-stage venture capital allotted even Google.

At launch, the app jumped on the photo-sharing bandwagon while also introducing us to the idea of the elastic, location-aware social network. Users could share photos with others in their current location, giving them a real-time photo album of strangers near and around them. But even without location features, Instagram was still dominating the photo-sharing space, and we all know how that’s gone (hint: very, very well). Color’s intial idea floundered, and its founders went back to the drawing board.

Its pivot then transformed the photo-sharing app into a live video broadcasting service integrated with Facebook (and then Verizon). The concept had some potential thanks to the “Instagram for video” trend, and according to AppData was used by 460,000 users per month, but Color Labs’ investors and shareholders purportedly have finally come to the conclusion that it’s not enough.

Venturebeat got a hold of an email that was sent out to its employees that indicates the bleak future for the startup:

“I hope is all well with you. As you may or may not have heard, Color is going through a number of changes. Last week, the board and major shareholders voted to wind down the company.

We ask that you politely cancel any existing commitments stating we are closing our [redacted] program.”

The internal turmoil within Color Labs has been well-documented, and it should come to no one’s surprise that the startup has been on shaky ground for awhile. Color Labs was burning quickly through the $40 million to sustain its first app but had no significant user traction to show for the investment. To the tech world, Color has been the quintessential disappointment.

Color’s co-founder Bill Nguyen was rumored to have retreated from his role as CEO and in his stead, investor and Color Labs board member Geoff Raiston took over the reins. Boardmembers were torn between letting a new CEO officially replace Nguyen, while others have been loyal to its current CEO. Nguyen confirmed with TechCrunch that he had ceased his day-to-day activities with Color, but assured them that everything was in order back at Color Labs headquarters and that he was simply taking a breather. Of course if these most recent reports are valid, his words were simply meant to brush off the uncertain state of the company.

We’ve reached out to Color Labs and will update this space with any new developments.

Iconic Nintendo characters like Mario and Link will be joining the upcoming Wii U-exclusive Scribblenauts Unlimited.

Though a teaser image appeared a few days ago that hinted at the possibility of Nintendo characters in the upcoming Scribblenauts Unlimited, today we have official confirmation from publisher Warner Bros. Interactive that “characters and items” from Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. and Legend Of Zelda franchises will appear in the game.

The announcement makes no mention of which characters might appear in the game — though Link and Mario are safe bets — but it does claim that the Nintendo characters will “behave in the fun and fantastical ways they do in their respective game worlds.” So, Link will swing his sword and Mario will shoot fire balls? 

Notably absent from the announcement is word on how these Nintendo icons might appear in the game. Given that Scribblenauts Unlimited uses a relatively wide-open side scrolling game world, it’s entirely possible that you might stumble into them on your journeys and have actual, meaningful character interaction. On the other hand it’s much more likely that these characters will simply be new additions to the in-game dictionary. Type in “Bowser” and Scribblenauts Unlimited will summon a giant turtle-dragon to stomp on things for you. 

It should be pointed out that this announcement seems to signal the start of a trend for the Wii U. When taken alongside the news that the console’s iteration of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 will include special, Nintendo-themed costume customization options, it seems as if Nintendo is making a push to elevate the appeal of third party games by injecting them with some minor amount of Nintendo’s own fan-favorite characters. Whether or not that strategy will actually benefit third-party development on the Wii U to any noticeable degree is anyone’s guess, but at least it shows that Nintendo realizes that historically its consoles have had poor third-party support. Maybe now, finally, the company wants to change that.

A downtown New York restaurant is asking patrons to upload photos of their meals to Instagram to help craft a visual menu for undecided diners and those interested in trying out the establishment. The inventive idea is fun and interactive, but it's hard for us to encourage people to keep taking photos of their food and uploading it to the Web.

Full disclosure: My family owns a restaurant in New York City and the cost of designing, printing, and distributing menus are a lot more than just clicking a few things on the Internet and waiting for things to ship. You have to pick a design that is functional, beautiful, representative of your facility, and most importantly, inviting. Then, it’s just a matter of hoping new customers are curious and kind enough to stop by, and luring them to come back for a delicious experience. So when I heard that a new Latin American restaurant opened up and is crowdsourcing its patrons to make its menu for them, I can’t tell if this is sheer cost-cutting laziness or pure genius.

Comodo, located in the SoHo neighborhood of downtown New York, came up with the idea when it noticed the food porn Instagram trends amongst its customers. You’ve likely seen this happen: People come in, get excited by the food they’ve ordered, and take artsy shots of the plate so their Instagram followers can be presumably jealous by what these guys are having for dinner. Comodo also realized this was a good way for the public to get a relatively accurate representation of the restaurant, so it start encouraging patrons to continue doing what they’re doing, then adding the hashtag #ComodoMenu to the photos.

The result? Ideally, a list of menu items, the names, what they look like, and the price. This is helpful for people considering trying the restaurant, but wants to know the price points, portion sizes, and an exact visual of what they should expect. Of course, this isn’t the only source of menu for Comodo; the restaurant has real physical ones as well for those who aren’t on Instagram.

So far, the hashtag and three-week-old restaurant has garnered 49 photos, but unfortunately, not all the photos are food from the restaurant, and most people forget to mention what the dish is called or how much it costs. Still, the idea is inventive and interactive, and it’s a cheap and easy way to create social buzz. The photos also help to show what menu items are popular judging by how often they show up under the hashtag, and can then be referred to as one of the recommended dishes at Comodo.

At the same time, us Digital Trends writers aren’t particularly thrilled with the whole food porn trend, so we’re pretty torn on encouraging other restaurants to follow suit. Hey, at least if you’re gonna do it, do it with a purpose and help a local business along the way. And businesses, if you’re gonna hop on the trend, you might want to provide some incentives for the patrons giving you free publicity! If it’s anything we can help promote, it’s symbiosis.

Apple has announced its latest media event a week before Microsoft's big Windows 8 party. This show of aggression may be designed to crush the threat of the Surface tablets early on, but could have been made out of fear rather than aggression.

Apple hates Android and wants to undermine Google at every opportunity. The evidence is everywhere, from Steve Jobs’ infamous willingness to “go thermonuclear” on the OS, to the banishing of Google Maps and YouTube from iOS 6. But it’s been more than a decade since Apple has appeared to loathe Microsoft. Yes, they used to be bitter rivals, but that was in a different time. Or, at least, we thought it was. But with Apple holding a major press conference on October 23, just three days before Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and Microsoft’s Surface tablets go on sale, it’s apparent that it once again considers Microsoft a threat.

Microsoft has been building up to this moment for a while, and make no mistake the Oct. 26 launch of Windows 8 is the company’s big moment of 2012, and possibly 2013 too. Windows 8 is the basis of the Microsoft’s strategy and product plans for the coming years, and it’s vitally important that it succeeds and gets good buzz.

Apple however, wants to assert its position, and will do so on Oct. 23, regardless of the products it launches. If the rumors are true and it shows a 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, a new Mac mini, or a curvy iMac, Apple will be saying “Computers? We do them better.” If it’s the iPad Mini, Apple will be reminding Microsoft that it has been making its own touchscreen hardware for a long, long time, and it can still suck up all the buzz and press, even when all it announces is a smaller, cheaper version of an existing product.

This is Apple flexing its muscles, arming its warheads, positioning the fleet, and pointing the finger directly at Microsoft. The sad thing for Microsoft is, it’s not even that aggressive a move. It’s as if Apple doesn’t really want or even need to spend much energy deflecting Microsoft’s efforts. A single press conference and product might do it. Even the event invitation’s slogan, “We’ve got a little more to show you,” makes the whole thing sound like an afterthought.

Apple to Surface missiles

What’s Apple’s problem, then? Apple is winning in smartphones and tablets — 85 million-plus iPhones sold in the US alone, 68-percent market share in tablets — and while Windows may dominate the home PC market, Mac OS X’s market share has been improving. Not that improving PC sales mean much. As we all know, PC sales are going nowhere but down at the moment.

Is this all about the Surface? Possibly, yes. Apple probably doesn’t relish the idea of another competitor trying to steal away some of its precious market share, and it’s obviously worried enough about the impact of cheap Android tablets to introduce a cheaper, smaller iPad. Microsoft has confirmed that it’s targeting the iPad with the official pricing of its tablets, with the 32GB Windows RT Surface going for $500, $100 less than the equivalent iPad. In the UK, that same 32GB Surface is £400, exactly the same price as a 16GB iPad.

It’s a sound business decision on Apple’s part to crash Microsoft’s party, but we can’t help but wonder if Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s words from an interview earlier this year initially woke the beast. Speaking to CRN.com, Ballmer was referring to Apple’s lead in innovation when he said: “We are not going to let any piece of this go uncontested by Apple, not the consumer cloud, not hardware or software innovation. We are not leaving any of that to Apple by itself. Not going to happen. Not on our watch.”

Now that’s just asking for trouble.

But looking back, perhaps Apple did land the first blow. In April, during a quarterly earnings call, CEO Tim Cook criticized Microsoft’s attempt to merge tablets and PCs with Windows 8. “You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but you know those things are probably not going to be pleasing to the user… And you wouldn’t want to put these things together because you wind up compromising both and not pleasing the user. Some people will prefer to own both, and that’s great there. But I think to make the compromises of convergence, we’re not going to that party. Others might. Others might from a defensive point of view, particularly. We’re going to play in both.”

A carefully crafted strike

The timing of Apple’s event is no accident: it’s a carefully crafted pre-emptive strike against Microsoft, which it hopes will crush any resistance that may be forthcoming. Apple wants to dilute whatever buzz surrounds Windows 8 and keep the eye of attention on itself throughout the holidays. It’s all very “shock and awe,” but Apple is proving that it’s has its eye on the steadily rising wave of competition. Is all this noise and brashness merely to cover up a degree of fear creeping in at Cupertino? If so, it needs to be careful. Predators can smell fear from miles away.

Gearbox Software and Sega will release Aliens: Colonial Marines in February 2013, exactly five years after it was first announced to the public. The game's campaign looks promising but its multiplayer lacks magic.

It takes around ten months to release a game to the public. The press and hardcore video game hobbyists usually follow a game from a game’s initial announcement up until it’s release, usually around two years, but for the general public it’s ten months of television, print, and public marketing. Eight prior to the release, when the heaviest early previewing in the press takes place, and then two months following. That’s how good game business is done.

By that metric, Aliens—a collaboration between 20^th Century Fox, Sega, and Gearbox Software—has been terrible business. The game was announced via a cover feature in Game Informer magazine in February 2008. It will finally be released in February 2013. That’s not exactly within the proper business cycle. Based on a preview of a beta build of the game at the New York Comic Con last week, it’s hard to say one way or another if the game was worth the wait.

Sega and Gearbox had two samples of the game on hand, a playable version of its xenomorphs versus Marines competitive multiplayer mode and a guided, unplayable look at the early campaign. Of the two, the campaign looked the most promising. Take note: The next passage includes some story spoilers for both the movies and the game, so if you’ve never experienced the Alien series, skip it.

Picking up just weeks after James Cameron’s Aliens, Gearbox’s canonical sequel sees a full battalion of 400 Colonial Marines sent to the ill-fated planet LV 426 to investigate the disappearance of Ellen Ripley and the crew of the Sulacco. Weyland Yutani, the sinister corporation vying to get their hands on the vicious alien species hidden in a derelict spacecraft on the planet’s surface, has covered up the destruction of the LV 426 colony and the deaths of the series’ protagonists, so the Marines are just doing due diligence to find out what happened to the crew. When they arrive at LV 426 though, Weyland Yutani’s private military is already there cleaning up, and they assault the marines looking to keep things quiet. The first level of the game—played second, strangely, during the demo—puts you in control of Marines fighting humans and trying to evacuate from the derelict Sulacco.

Gearbox’s president Randy Pitchford was explaining during the demo that his team decided that the game needed more complex, thoughtful enemies than just the berserker aliens in their game, and the WY forces (seen briefly at the end of Alien 3) were a perfect choice. In the demo shown, they didn’t seem particularly threatening though. While they certainly had mean firepower—the demo player almost died—they didn’t have very cunning AI, they just burst into the room and blasted away in the open. There were moments when both human forces were fending off aliens, but it was very brief, so it’s impossible to tell if those dynamics will be more seriously explored.

The following level demoed was a concentrated dose of fan service, with a fairly steady, atmospheric tour of LV 426’s surface, revisiting many scenes from the film. The Marines’ ground vehicle Ripley crashed outside, the post-meltdown atmospheric reactor, and the medical bay where Ripley and Newt were attacked by larval alien face huggers were all stops on the Old School Express. It was only at the end of the demo that the action picked back up with aliens popping out and trying to snack on the player character.

The game looked good, albeit not as good as these Sega-provided screenshots make it look. Running on beefy PCs, Gearbox’s proprietary engine (a heavily modified version of the Unreal Engine 3 according to Pitchford) rendered a world as dark, wet, and mean as the one in Cameron’s movie. The character models, human and otherwise, looked nice with smooth animation, but at least in the campaign the aliens moved a bit too slowly in some moments. Gearbox stressed, though, that the game is in beta, meaning the content’s all in place but  still being polished. Janky-looking effects, like garish, solid-colored blood spatters from humans and aliens, certainly demonstrate that the game’s delay from fall 2012 was wise.

The competitive multiplayer  justified the delay as well. While the inclusion of competitive multiplayer is expected—not only as a modern necessity as a feature, but also as a tradition in Aliens video games like Aliens vs. Predator—my session made it seem like an after thought. Three types of alien were available for play, two swift soldier classes and a beefy bull-like alien that the player could upgrade to based on performance. Controlling the soldiers aliens was frustrating because it often simply didn’t work. Puling the controller’s trigger should make you stick to a wall to sneak up on unwitting marines, but it didn’t always work. The bull class, meanwhile, was too slow to be useful, lumbering around and only killing the most oblivious opponent. It was hard not to feel like Gearbox would have been better served not making the multiplayer component at all, instead focusing on the campaign. Another multiplayer mode was on hand but I didn’t get a chance to try it to see if it fared better.

Aliens looks like a solid piece of fiction in a rich, established sci-fi universe, but it did not look or feel like a game that’s been in production for five years. The campaign looks promising, but without getting actual hands on time with it, it’s still too early to say it looks good. Here’s hoping Gearbox makes the most of these next few months.

We have five copies of XCOM: Enemy Unknown to give away, two for the PS3, two for the Xbox 360, and one for the PC via Steam. Winning a copy is as simple as posting a comment. Read on for details on how you can enter to win!

Let’s get down to brass tax: A lot of you out there may not be into real-time strategy games, and that’s fine. The genre had its day in the sun, and with the exception of a few major franchises that appeal to a dedicated fan base, there isn’t nearly as much mainstream appeal as there once was. If you are among those that has lost their taste for the RTS style, you should consider getting over that for XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Firaxis Games did something remarkable with XCOM: Enemy Unknown, it took a classic game and reimagined it for a new generation. You hear that word a lot these days, “reimagined,” but usually those using it mean they took an existing property and made their own thing under the name of the old. That is not the case here.

Firaxis identified what it was about the last game that worked, then it built a game with modern technology that carried over those key ideals. It was a long process, but a fruitful one.  The result is a game we liked so much we gave it a 9.5. For more details on the development, check out our recent interview with Garth DeAngelis, one of the lead producers for the game.

So if you have been on the fence about this game, or maybe it is on your list but you just haven’t had the chance to pick it up yet, put your money away and enter for your shot at winning a copy on us.

We have five copies to give away to five winners: two PS3 copies, two Xbox 360 copies, and one PC copy that we have a Steam code for.

To be entered to win, all you have to do is post a comment below telling us what your favorite old school PC game was. Just post a comment, and you will be entered to win. Be sure to include what system you are hoping to win a copy on (multiple systems if fine, but each winner will only receive one copy).

The contest will run until Wednesday, October 24 at noon PST.

Good luck to all!