Following on from his previous DiRT 3 event Gymkhana video notching up an impressive 500,000+ views, Codemasters has released stunning new footage of his stunt driving run at Battersea Power Station, as filmed through tilt-shift cameras. Tilt-shift technology creates the illusion of a miniaturised world in the video as Ken Block performs a masterclass in car control around the London landmark (which was turned into the DC Compound, a level from DiRT 3). It’s a very surreal watch and at times I can swear it’s just a toy car roaming around a track at the Gymkhana Uncovered event. Check it out below:
Yoostar 2, the game that allows you to put yourself in the movies using Kinect, will have the honour of being part of the London Film Museum.
Using its unique technology, Yoostar 2 allows players the chance to actually step in to the movies. Playing alongside or in place of their favourite actors, people can star in hundreds of scenes from classic Hollywood films and TV shows.
Visitors to London‘s only museum of its kind will have their chance to shine when they enter the specially designed Yoostar Studio. Sound proofed to ensure nothing can interfere with their moment in the limelight; visitors will be able to watch their friends’ performances from large screens placed on the outside of the studio. They will even be able to share these performances with the world via Yoostar Playground on Facebook and YouTube.
The Yoostar set will be unveiled for the first time on June 18th at London’s WestEnd Live , a free event held in Leicester square showcasing the best of entertainment on offer in the heart of London.
The world of internet memes and viral videos has been a crazy one this week! Thirteen year old singer Rebecca Black has once again been dominating headlines, with the controversy arising over the ownership of her viral music video ‘Friday’ resulting the video being taken down entirely. The song has collectively got over 165 million views and became a Meme overnight, being called by many ‘the worst song ever’. Recently her label Ark Music factory decided to make the video a Youtube Rental, meaning fans would need to pay a $2.99 to watch the video, causing some bad publicity for the artist. Black and her Lawyers decided to file a copyright infringement notice to Youtube, and lead to them pulling it off the site altogether.
Apparently the contract gave all rights to the song to Black, although the label Ark Music factory seems to disagree. The contract also gave ownership of the master to Rebecca Black, although she is still yet to receive it. So when Ark decided to start charging people for it’s views, Black and her team decided to get it removed all together. This caused anger amongst her fans and viewers, leading her to tweet the following:
“Thanks for all the messages regarding the $2.99 fee added to Friday video, I have NOTHING to do with this!!….PS…My Manager and Lawyer are on this and are going to get to the bottom of this! Stay tuned…” –Rebecca Black
Ark Music Factory have also released a statement explaining how they were upset with her decision to get the video pulled from Youtube.
“We’re disappointed, having been in good faith negotiations with Rebecca Black and her representatives for months regarding any open issues,” an Ark Music representative said. “There’s been an ongoing, open dialogue with our company. So we were blindsided to get a Take Down Notice—with no notice–alleging copyright infringement instead of a call or email from Rebecca’s representatives.
“Our use of the video has fully been authorized (as evidenced by four uninterrupted months and 160million-plus viewings without objection) by both Ms. Black and the copyright holder. Regardless, we are going to continue to take the high road and work out the complaint as soon as possible so that the million-plus people who watch Friday for free each day can continue to enjoy the video.” –Ark Music Factory
Yesterday the music video mysteriously returned to YouTube. It appeared on page that claimed to be Rebecca’s official VEVO account. Soon after though, the video was taken down because “the YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated due to multiple or severe violations.”
The music video is was the 22nd most watched video on Youtube before being taken down. The future of the video is unknown, but one thing is for certain: today is Saturday, and Sunday comes afterwards.
There were some big announcements from Siren Visual at Supanova Sydney today. With new anime out on DVD and streaming this upcoming anime season, Siren was definitely on the ball with these announcements. Here’s what was announced:
Dennou Coil – Will be streaming on ANN this July and it’s first DVD is set to be released in September .
Bunny Drop – Will be streaming on ANN this July and it’s DVD release is as of this writing, to be determined.
Angel Beats – Will be released to DVD this September, the status of a Blu-Ray release is unknown at this point.
Siren have definitely got a great line-up here and are proving themselves to be a great alternative to anime fans, looking for something different and unique, that they can’t find elsewhere in this country.
Parrot had quite a showing at this years E3, announcing Android support as well as new games AR.Race, AR.FlyingAce and AR.Pursuit in addition to an international competition for pilots who can record their flights to enter. If you’re top gun enough, Parrot will even send you to Paris for the finals. Capsule Computers EIC Philip Federico got a chance to catch up with with Parrot and discussed their announcements as well as upcoming accessories and monthly firmware updates.
If you were concerned that you would never be able to play the third game of the F.E.A.R. series than you have nothing to be afraid of anymore. Well other than the game itself maybe, because F.E.A.R. 3 has finally seen a launch trailer, especially since the game will be released next week on June 21st for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.
The launch trailer shows off plenty of the creepy moments that you’ll be seeing in the game as well as Point Man and Paxon Fettel working together. All set to the tune of a Marilyn Manson song which certainly fits the whole F.E.A.R. mindset. Who will be picking this game up next week? Or has the series grown a bit too stale for you after three games and a number of delays?
If you thought you had seen the last of Grasshopper Manufacture and Suda 51’s strange but hilarious Shadows of the Damned developer diaries then you are sorely mistaken my friend. They have released another developer diary and this time around they are talking about the game’s sound effects and what sets Shadows of the Damned apart from other games in that category.
In my opinion they could have had the voice over actors do most of the voices in the game because they certainly would fit right in. Besides the spooky sounds of the environment we can’t forget that you’ll be also treated to your Johnson talking non-stop. Your gun Johnson that is…. You can catch the video below and also catch Shadows of the Damned when it is released next week on June 21st for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Unfortunately the news of gaming websites and game developer services being hacked has become commonplace and today is no different. Sega sent out emails today to member who use the Sega Pass online network to warn them of a recent breach in the data security of their system.
Sega does not know the extent of the breach at the moment but does say that a “subset of Sega pass members email addresses, dates of birth and encrypted passwords were obtained.” The encrypted passwords means that the passwords are not going to be easily used by others. The recently in the news hacker group known as Lulz Security has said that they are not responsible for the attack and no other group has claimed responsibility.
The below letter is the email that was sent out to affected users:
Dear XXXXX,
As you may be aware, the SEGA Pass system has been offline since yesterday, Thursday 16 June.
Over the last 24 hours we have identified that unauthorised entry was gained to our SEGA Pass database.
We immediately took the appropriate action to protect our consumers’ data and isolate the location of the breach. We have launched an investigation into the extent of the breach of our public systems.
We have identified that a subset of SEGA Pass members emails addresses, dates of birth and encrypted passwords were obtained. To stress, none of the passwords obtained were stored in plain text.
Please note that no personal payment information was stored by SEGA as we use external payment providers, meaning your payment details were not at risk from this intrusion.
If you use the same login information for other websites and/or services as you do for SEGA Pass, you should change that information immediately.
We have also reset your password and all access to SEGA Pass has been temporarily suspended.
Additionally we recommend you please take extra caution if you should receive suspicious emails that ask for personal or sensitive information.
Therefore please do not attempt to login to SEGA Pass at present, we will communicate when the service becomes available.
We sincerely apologise for this incident and regret any inconvenience caused.
We are contacting all our members with these recommendations.
If you have any further questions please contact SEGA customer support on [email protected]
Codemasters announced today that they will be ending the online play in GRID for the PlayStation 3 and PC. The title was released over three years ago for the PS3 PC and the Xbox 360. For some reason the Xbox 360 version of the game is still going to be supported online for the moment.
Codemasters released this information in their own forums saying “After three years of service, 2008’s Race Driver: GRID’s online play service has been discontinued for the PS3 and PC editions of the game” They went on to say that the decision was not their own but in fact “the decision by a third party provider to decline the offer of an extended contract to continue online play on these platforms. Race Driver: GRID for Xbox 360 is not affected.”
They went on to thank their users and also apologize to anyone who still played those titles online. Of course this is going to make at least a few people upset, but at least it sounds like Codemasters tried to keep the game online. Though after three years perhaps its time to move on.
If you are a big fan of Portal 2 on the PC then you may want to keep reading. Portal 2 and the Razer have teamed up and are going to be offering a new Portal 2 DLC package exclusive to anyone who owns a PC. Well anyone who owns a PC and the new Sixense motion controller device that Razer recently released.
Also you are going to have to be willing to pay $140 for the content. The actual pack is the “Sixense Motion Pack” and will include six new levels and stretchable blocks that can be modified to whatever use you’ll need them for. You can order the controller itself through Steam and comes with the DLC and a copy of Portal 2. If you feel like paying a ton for something that only has one real use at the moment, then you can do so at the Steam page. Anyone see a bit of a likliehood this could be released on the PlayStation 3 with Move compatibility in the future?
