Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim coming next November, first trailer released - Ars Technica

The 2010 Video Game Awards on Spike TV was filled with awkward celebrity guests, game reveals that were light on actual game play, and few surprises before the show. One game announcement caught everyone flatfooted, however, and that was the reveal of a new Elder Scrolls game.

Called Skyrim, the game was announced by Bethesda Softworks Executive Producer Todd Howard and teased with a short trailer that explained some of the game's story but showed none of the in-game graphics. A tweet from Bethesda's Nick Breckon dispelled the rumor that the game will run on the recently-acquired id Software's technology. "We can now confirm that the TES V: Skyrim engine is all-new," he wrote. "And it looks fantastic."

It won't be long until we get more details, but that's all there is to go on for now. The game's release date? November 11, 2011. That's right, 11-11-11. How many more ones can there be? None. None more ones.

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4chan rushes to WikiLeaks' defense, forces Swiss banking site offline - Ars Technica

The forces of Anonymous have taken aim at several companies who are refusing to do business with WikiLeaks. 4chan's hordes have launched distributed denial-of-service attacks against PayPal, Swiss bank PostFinance, and other sites that have hindered the whistleblowing site's operations.

A self-styled spokesman for the group calling himself "Coldblood" has said that any website that's "bowing down to government pressure" is a target. PayPal ceased processing donations to the site, and PostFinance froze WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's account. The attacks are being performed under the Operation: Payback banner; Operation: Payback is the name the group is using in its long-running attacks on the RIAA, MPAA, and other organizations involved with anti-piracy lawsuits.

The initial attacks against PayPal were substantially ineffective; the PayPal blog was taken offline, but the main PayPal site wasn't harmed. The attacks against PostFinance, however, have resulted in the bank's website being unavailable for more than 16 hours. It remains unavailable at the time of writing. The latest target is the site of the Swedish prosecutors in Assange's sexual misconduct trial. This too appears to be offline. Twitter has also been named as a future attack target, due to its censorship of the #wikileaks hashtag.

The companies being attacked deny that their behavior is a result of government influence. Rather, they are claiming that WikiLeaks and Assange have failed to adhere to the terms of use of various services. Amazon, which for a time hosted the site, said that WikiLeaks was failing to ensure that it "wasn't putting innocent people in jeopardy." PostFinance said that Assange lied on an application form.

In a case of tit-for-tat, unknown forces have since launched a denial of service attack against Anonymous' own site (one that took it offline shortly after publication), though the IRC channel used for coordination is still operational, and its denial-of-service software, LOIC, is still functioning properly.

WikiLeaks was itself the target of massive denial of service attacks in the wake of its release of thousands of US embassy cables. The source of these attacks remains unknown. In addition to making the main WikiLeaks site hard to access, DoS attacks against DNS provider EveryDNS resulted in the company cutting WikiLeaks off, as it was unwilling to tolerate the excess traffic.

In spite of this, hundreds of mirrors of the site have popped up across the globe, with Anonymous claiming to have created many of them. An "insurance file"—an encrypted torrent of the entire cable dump—has been widely distributed, along with the promise that the decryption key will be published should anything bad happen to WikiLeaks.

Assange himself is currently remanded in custody in the UK. Swedish prosecutors are seeking to have him extradited to face sexual misconduct charges. He surrendered to police in London and was arrested. Bail was refused over fears that he might flee, and also due to some fear that he was at risk from "unstable persons." With widespread calls for his murder, this might not be too far-fetched.

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Google launches eBookstore with choice of sellers and devices - Ars Technica

We expected Google to launch its upcoming e-book store before the end of the year, and the company announced Monday that the new Google eBookstore is now open for business in the US. Google is touting the "open" nature of its e-books by making them accessible to the widest array of popular e-reader devices, including the iPad, Nook, and Sony Reader. 

Google's new eBookstore works a little differently than other stores—at least when it comes to reading via computer. All purchased titles are kept in Google's cloud-based storage and accessed via a browser. When reading via an iOS or Android-based device, a dedicated app can download and cache titles for reading offline. And for devices compatible with Adobe's DRM-protected e-book formats—including Sony Reader and Barnes & Noble Nook—PDF or EPUB files can be downloaded and transferred to your device using Adobe Editions software.

Those hoping Google meant "DRM-free" when it said "open" will be disappointed, though, as may users of Amazon's popular Kindle e-reader. "Currently, Google eBooks are not compatible with Amazon Kindle devices, though we are open to supporting them in the future," the company noted in a support document.

Google has also partnered with Powell's, Alibris, and participating members of the American Booksellers Association to offer rebranded Google e-books through their respective websites. "You can choose where to buy your e-books like you choose where to buy your print books, and keep them all on the same bookshelf regardless of where you got them," according to Google Books product manager Abraham Murray.

Google said that its library of over 3 million books is one of the largest in the world. "Hundreds of thousands" are on sale (similar to libraries from Amazon, Kobo, and Apple) while the rest are public domain titles available from the Google Books project.

The proposed settlement to sell e-book versions of copyrighted books hasn't yet received final approval from the courts, but the Google eBookstore puts all the technological pieces in to place so additional titles can be made available once it is. Some publishers worried that approval of the deal could create an e-book duopoly between Amazon and Google, but Apple's iBookstore and Barnes & Noble's Kobo-powered store have opened since it was originally announced.

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Week in gaming: Call of Duty review, Black Ops in 3D, CoD bribes - Ars Technica

It's very possible there is a theme to this week's top stories, and I'm sure you'll be able to crack the code. Call of Duty: Black Ops is a huge release, and with Activision spending thousands of dollars per reviewer to help everyone feel warm about the game (despite the problems the PC version experienced at launch), there was plenty to write about.

We also reviewed the new Goldeneye title on the Wii, and took a look at a very impressive-seeming iPhone game. Come on in, and we promise to go easier on Call of Duty next week... if we can stop playing online.

Call of Duty: Black Ops PC review: CPU bound, broken online play: Call of Duty: Black Ops goes for broke and makes a huge variety of settings and eras a part of the game's story. It's confusing because your character is confused, you see. It's a grand trick, but it doesn't hide the game's crippling technical problems.

A classic, reborn: Ars reviews Goldeneye 007 on the Wii: A classic console experience gets a... sequel? Reboot? Whatever you want to call it, this is a very worthy addition to the Goldeneye name. Remember, Oddjob is cheating.

Call of Duty: Black Ops, on PC, in 3D. Our first few hours: Our impressions of playing the game in 3D: to sum it up, it feels like I'm in a testosterone-soaked isolation chamber.

Call of Duty: Black Ops review event, press gifts detailed: Will companies pay for good reviews? Not directly, but by plying the press with free trips, gifts and stays at luxorious resorts, they can certainly stack the deck in their favor. Here is how Activision wowed the press before they even played Black Ops.

Epic Games shows off best looking iPhone game EVAR: Infinity Blade: Infinity Blade hopes to raise the bar for graphics on iOS devices, and the newest video showing off actual gameplay is convincing. Have a look, and download Epic Citadel if you haven't already.

Building the future: Microsoft's Kinect a marathon, not a sprint: The Kinect has plenty of problems as a gaming platform, but as a piece of Microsoft technology it's nothing but possibility. The investment Microsoft has placed in the new technology points to one thing: this device isn't going to stop at the 360.

100 copies of new Call of Duty stolen in armed heist of GameStop: The theft of video games is common. With games arriving by the case before big launches to stores staffed by a single teenager many hours a day, GameStop locations are an appealing target. One store in Baltimore lost the money in the register, plus 100 copies of the new Call of Duty release.

Nail'd: fast, insane, spectacularly unrealistic, and fun: Nail'd is one of those games that seems designed purely to show you insane things, and then allow you to explore them. It's simple enough for anyone to pick up, but the airborne gameplay should also keep hardcore gamers happy.

Ravaging villages, pilfering gold: Ars reviews Hoard: The PlayStation Network game Hoard manages to combine some of the best elements of arcade shooters with a board game style structure. It also lets you play as a dragon willing to do anything to get its claws on some gold.

The Kinect effect: how Harmonix mastered Dance Central's menus: Harmonix engineer Ryan Challinor discusses the problems with creating a gesture-controlled menu system when your only point of reference is the movie Minority Report.

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Cats use gravity, inertia, gecko-like process to lap up cream - Ars Technica

The way cats drink water turns out to be a more complex process than we thought, according to a paper published in Science on Thursday. When a group of researchers used high-speed imaging to capture video of cats drinking water, they found that cats are, among other things, using only the tip of their tongue to pull water into their mouths from the surface. Once there, they exploit inertia and gravity to hold onto it, and maintain proportionate lapping and swallowing cycles.

It might seem that cats would take advantage of the grain of their tongue that serves them so well in grooming, but the imaging showed that the cats used only the smooth tip to drink. And, unlike dogs, which use their tongue to scoop water, cats' tongues don't even penetrate the surface.

Instead, they get water into their mouths using an almost gecko-like process: their tongue tips shoot out, contact the water surface, adhere to it, and pull up to draw the water into a column that moves into their mouths thanks to sheer inertia. Cats then take advantage of their head orientation and gravity to hold that water in a cavity in their palate, just behind their front teeth. They swallow after somewhere between three and 17 laps.

According to the researchers, it's the cats' lack of cheeks, and the resulting inability to create suction, that restricts them to lapping. Still, cats have managed to adapt pretty admirably, and the authors note that further study of their tongues could be helpful in developing robots with flexible parts and biomechanical models for understanding the behavior of soft tissues.

Science, 2010. DOI: 10.1126/science.1195421  (About DOIs).

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Call of Duty: Black Ops PC review: CPU bound, broken online play - Ars Technica

Do the people lining up at midnight to buy Black Ops even know the difference between Treyarch and Infinity Ward? We spill pages of virtual ink in the enthusiast press about the soap opera between Activision and the creators of Call of Duty, but how many people actually pay attention? Gamers want to shoot people, and they want to do it online, and they want a few vehicle segments. They don't care who delivers it.

For those of us who do follow these things, the Black Ops launch is very much Treyarch's coming out party. The developer is no longer the redheaded step-child of the Call of Duty series, called in to give the A-Team a break while still profiting from the franchise. This is its chance to step up and create something that stands on its own. They've largely succeeded, and the game reeks of confidence. That being said, this path is well-worn, and I couldn't help but get the sense that we're watching a very talented skater perform tricks we've seen before on a half-pipe that's gotten a lot of use.

And oh yeah, the multiplayer barely works on the PC version, and single-player also seems to have major issues. Ta-da!

The game's premise is clever, and the menus themselves meld seamlessly into the game. You're being held... captive, maybe. Held hostage by shadowy figures, you're debriefed about a very long and distinguished career where you've spilled lead and blood across many years and many countries.

You'll meet some historical figures, and humanity will often be very close to the brink of disaster. There is a weapon that is being hunted by very powerful and ruthless people, and you'll do many things to stop its spread. Some scenes felt more X-Files than Heart of Darkness, in fact.

We are cold blooded because we kill people silently

The single-player campaign is longer than we're used to in this sort of highly scripted action game, closer to eight hours than six, and it's incredibly enjoyable. Gun battles are placed around set pieces and incredible moments of super-heroism, and you'll never be quite sure what will happen next, or even in what year. Modern Warfare 2 had a jangly, disjointed story that often left gamers feeling confused about what was going on, and Black Ops has decided to just embrace that. Hell, the character you play through the majority of the game is confused about what's going on. You're just along for the ride.

And what a ride! You'll be rappelling down the sides of things, jumping off even taller things, taking off in flying things, blowing away space-bound things, riding and driving two- and four-wheeled things while shooting things at stuff all over the place. Just in case you forget how edgy these games are supposed to be, in one scene you punch a window, take a piece of glass, put it in the mouth of another character, and then punch them very hard in the head. There is a lot of blood.

A few notes: not only are there many different guns, but you can find different variations of the guns. Extended magazines, different scopes, dual-wielding—the guns can be set up in a variety of ways, although you won't be modding them yourself in the singleplayer. Still, how cool is it to find a combination machine gun/flamethrower?

The voice cast is also impressive, including Ed Harris, Sam Worthington, Ice Cube, and Gary Oldman. Some do better than others, but everyone seems like they're trying, which is a big step up from most games where the big-name talent seems to mostly phone it in. Although, to be honest, Oldman does tend to ham it up.

Black Ops has interesting twists and turns, and the scene after the credits roll is wonderful in its humor, but it feels like a knife that has been sharpened so many times it's nearly invisible. These big-budget war games are starting to blend together, with the drivable vehicles and the globe-trotting and the military technology. I'm not sure if I've simply played too many of them or if there needs to be something done to shake things up, but a few scenes seemed to be there simply because we expect them from a game of this type. Also, twice I caught the game seemingly throwing endless waves of enemies at me until I stepped forward to the next waypoint. Once was around the middle of the game, and the other closer to the end, but it was still disappointing.

The game takes place in a variety of settings, across a number of years

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Call of Duty: Black Ops PC review: CPU bound, broken online play - Ars Technica

Do the people lining up at midnight to buy Black Ops even know the difference between Treyarch and Infinity Ward? We spill pages of virtual ink in the enthusiast press about the soap opera between Activision and the creators of Call of Duty, but how many people actually pay attention? Gamers want to shoot people, and they want to do it online, and they want a few vehicle segments. They don't care who delivers it.

For those of us who do follow these things, the Black Ops launch is very much Treyarch's coming out party. The developer is no longer the redheaded step-child of the Call of Duty series, called in to give the A-Team a break while still profiting from the franchise. This is its chance to step up and create something that stands on its own. They've largely succeeded, and the game reeks of confidence. That being said, this path is well-worn, and I couldn't help but get the sense that we're watching a very talented skater perform tricks we've seen before on a half-pipe that's gotten a lot of use.

And oh yeah, the multiplayer barely works on the PC version, and single-player also seems to have major issues. Ta-da!

The game's premise is clever, and the menus themselves meld seamlessly into the game. You're being held... captive, maybe. Held hostage by shadowy figures, you're debriefed about a very long and distinguished career where you've spilled lead and blood across many years and many countries.

You'll meet some historical figures, and humanity will often be very close to the brink of disaster. There is a weapon that is being hunted by very powerful and ruthless people, and you'll do many things to stop its spread. Some scenes felt more X-Files than Heart of Darkness, in fact.

We are cold blooded because we kill people silently

The single-player campaign is longer than we're used to in this sort of highly scripted action game, closer to eight hours than six, and it's incredibly enjoyable. Gun battles are placed around set pieces and incredible moments of super-heroism, and you'll never be quite sure what will happen next, or even in what year. Modern Warfare 2 had a jangly, disjointed story that often left gamers feeling confused about what was going on, and Black Ops has decided to just embrace that. Hell, the character you play through the majority of the game is confused about what's going on. You're just along for the ride.

And what a ride! You'll be rappelling down the sides of things, jumping off even taller things, taking off in flying things, blowing away space-bound things, riding and driving two- and four-wheeled things while shooting things at stuff all over the place. Just in case you forget how edgy these games are supposed to be, in one scene you punch a window, take a piece of glass, put it in the mouth of another character, and then punch them very hard in the head. There is a lot of blood.

A few notes: not only are there many different guns, but you can find different variations of the guns. Extended magazines, different scopes, dual-wielding—the guns can be set up in a variety of ways, although you won't be modding them yourself in the singleplayer. Still, how cool is it to find a combination machine gun/flamethrower?

The voice cast is also impressive, including Ed Harris, Sam Worthington, Ice Cube, and Gary Oldman. Some do better than others, but everyone seems like they're trying, which is a big step up from most games where the big-name talent seems to mostly phone it in. Although, to be honest, Oldman does tend to ham it up.

Black Ops has interesting twists and turns, and the scene after the credits roll is wonderful in its humor, but it feels like a knife that has been sharpened so many times it's nearly invisible. These big-budget war games are starting to blend together, with the drivable vehicles and the globe-trotting and the military technology. I'm not sure if I've simply played too many of them or if there needs to be something done to shake things up, but a few scenes seemed to be there simply because we expect them from a game of this type. Also, twice I caught the game seemingly throwing endless waves of enemies at me until I stepped forward to the next waypoint. Once was around the middle of the game, and the other closer to the end, but it was still disappointing.

The game takes place in a variety of settings, across a number of years

View the original article here

NASA moon impact blasted into material that's 5% water - Ars Technica

About a year ago, NASA held a press conference to describe the preliminary results of its analysis of the LCROSS experiment, in which a spent rocket stage plowed into the Cabeus crater at the Moon's south pole. As the impact took place, there was no visible debris plume, but NASA captured it in the UV and IR portions of the spectrum, and was able to announce that there were "significant quantities" of water seen in the debris. Now that the dust has long since settled, a total of six papers and a perspective that describe the results have appeared in Science.

One of the papers describes the impact site in the Cabeus Crater, and other polar craters like it, based on thermal data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The shaded areas near the craters' walls, which never receive sunlight, should in theory be exceptionally cold, with the only heat coming from radiation by the opposing, sunlit crater wall. An LRO instrument confirms that this is actually the case, producing estimates that these "cold traps" are hovering only 38K above absolute zero.

"Temperatures in the Moon’s larger cold traps are closer to those expected for the poles of Pluto than for Earth’s closest neighbor," the authors conclude.

All of which made Cabeus a great choice to crash a rocket into, since temperatures that cold mean that relatively volatile compounds, including water, don't sublimate (go directly from solid to gaseous form) at appreciable rates, even if no atmosphere is present.

And, as NASA first announced, the infrared instrument that followed the rocket in picked up evidence of water in the impact plume. The new data analysis now goes a long way towards telling us how much is there by estimating both the total size of the plume and the percentage of water in it.

As a separate paper describes it, the debris plume actually became visible in stages. First up was mineral material, the dust and rocks blasted out of the crater by the impact itself. By 30 seconds after impact, however, this material had started to fall back towards the lunar surface, after which the spectrum of the debris cloud became dominated by materials in gaseous form, such as vaporized water. The instrument was also able to estimate the total size of the cloud, which was essential for figuring out the volume of material blasted free by the impact.

Running the numbers, the scientists concluded that the surface material in Cabeus is between five and six percent water, with most of that in the form of pure ice covered by a protective layer of dust. The results confirm that the signal doesn't arise from water incorporated into a mineral, or from compounds like aluminum hydroxide. All told, several hundred kilograms of water were liberated during the LCROSS impact.

Water wasn't the only volatile compound that showed up in the data, however. Signals corresponded to various organic species, including carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and various nitrogen and sulfur bonds. And, in a bit of a surprise, hydrogen seems to have been present in its molecular form (a neutral H2 molecule). Presumably, it's absorbed onto the surface of a mineral in the lunar material. Roughly 140kg of hydrogen was blasted free by the impact—by weight, that's more than the magnesium present.

The infrared instrument also may have picked up signs of sodium and silver, while a UV instrument on the LRO mission found signs of mercury, calcium, and magnesium.

All in all, these are pretty significant results. Some of the earlier hints of water on the Moon were consistent with the water being produced as protons are delivered to the Moon's surface by the solar wind. The significant quantities of other volatiles seem to suggest something more complex is going on; "Going by the evolving spectra, the impact released a variety of volatiles besides water, which suggests a variety of possible sources besides solar wind implantation," the authors of one paper conclude. These possible sources would include delivery of material via comets and a more active surface chemistry than anyone expected.

A perspective that describes all of these results suggests that we probably won't learn much more about how these materials got there without going to see them in their native state ourselves. And that's looking a bit more manageable. Assuming we can keep the water free of the mercury that's also present and deal with Pluto-level temperatures, then there should be useful quantities of water present in Cabeus and other cold sinks.

Science, 2010. DOI: 10.1126/science.330.6003.434  (About DOIs).

(The DOI link is for the perspective, which contains references for the other papers.)

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