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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Twitter links users to Apple music social network - Reuters

A Twitter page is displayed on an Apple iPhone in Los Angeles October 13, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

SAN FRANCISCO | Thu Nov 11, 2010 12:53pm EST

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microblogging website Twitter said on Thursday it will link its service with Apple Inc's new music-oriented social network.

Apple announced the Ping social network in September. It works within Apple's iTunes music program and lets users follow artists and recommend songs to their chosen circle of friends.

Twitter said its more than 175 million registered users can now connect their accounts to Ping, allowing them to put song previews and links to buy music from the iTunes store directly in their messages, which are known as "tweets."

Twitter's deal comes after Apple failed to strike a Ping partnership with social networking leader Facebook, which has more than 500 million users.

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs told the All Things Digital blog in September that Apple had held talks with Facebook about a deal related to Ping, but the discussions did not produce an agreement.

Facebook declined to comment on Thursday.

Cupertino, California-based Apple's shares were down 88 cents at $317.15 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

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NASA Finds Space Telescope Plagued By Astronomical Costs - InformationWeek

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Costs to build the James Webb Space Telescope -- NASA's successor to Hubble – are mushrooming out of control, prompting the agency to make personnel changes to get the project back on track.

An independent comprehensive review panel found that it will take between $6.2 billion to $6.8 billion, rather than the estimated $5 billion, to complete the telescope, costs that will require the agency to add another $500 million to its budget over the next two years. The panel released its report Wednesday.

The panel blamed lack of cost control, not on the technical team building the telescope, but on project management and budgeting projections.

"The technical performance on the Project has been commendable and often excellent," according to the report. "However, the budget baseline accepted at the Confirmation Review did not reflect the most probable cost with adequate reserves in each year of project execution. This resulted in a project that was simply not executable within the budgeted resources."

Two budgeting missteps in 2008 at the project's confirmation review led NASA to erroneously project the telescope's final cost, according to the report.

First, NASA failed to base the budget on an estimate of projected costs that reflected threats to the project that existed at the time. Secondly, the agency didn't recognize the budget's inadequacies at the time, and even reserves added to the budget failed to present a complete budget picture, the panel found.

Budget woes aren't the only ones plaguing the project; the delivery of the telescope is also late. Earliest projections were to launch the telescope in 2007; NASA later pushed that back to 2014. The panel's report said it now expects the telescope won't make it to space sooner than September 2015.

The report's findings have spurred NASA administrator Charles Bolden to take action to prevent any further problems with the project.

"No one is more concerned about the situation we find ourselves in than I am," he said in a statement.

Bolden is assigning a new senior manager at NASA headquarters to oversee the telescope's completion, he said. The appointee will have help from a staff of technical and cost personnel from the science mission directorate to report directly to a NASA associate administrator.

Bolden also has reorganized the Goddard Space Flight Center's project office to report directly to the center director and is making personnel changes there to directly address problems found in the report. Goddard is the NASA center in charge of the project.

Making these organizational moves will ensure more direct oversight from NASA administrators as the project moves ahead, leaving less room for error, Bolden said.

"I am disappointed we have not maintained the level of cost control we strive to achieve -- something the American taxpayer deserves in all of our projects," he said.

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