Shogun 2 Total War looks Incredible … In Pre-Alpha Stage

PC gamers amongst you will know of the Total War series. This series of real time strategy games by ‘The Creative Assembly’ dates back as far as 2001 and well let’s face it, it’s pretty much Age of Empires ramped up with crack cocaine and steroids. But scheduled for release next year is the next release in the long running series, Shogun 2 Total War. The first of their “Battle Report” trailers has just been released and my oh my have they out done themselves on this one.

 

 

Shogun 2 Total War is set in 16th Century Japan during the aftermath of the Onin War. During said era, you take command of one of nine warring factions and lead their to victory through espionage, diplomacy and of course, conquest. The new engine being developed for Shogun 2 allows for an excess of 56,000 soldiers to be on screen at any one time quite a milestone in game development if you ask me. Shogun 2 Total War is due for release sometime next year, 2011.

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Robot Invasion Looms Closer

If you've dipped your toes into the deep waters of the tech world any time in the last decade, you'll know that technology has very slowly been stepping on the toes of doomsday plot lines from infamous sci-fi's. The story lines to much acclaimed sci-fi dramas such as Battlestar Galactica and the Terminator franchise is scarily and slowly coming true. Today it would appear that we've taken another step forward towards a cyborg apocalypse with the reports of an unmanned aerial drone going rogue over in Washington, USA.

A Northrup grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout UAV strayed into restricted US air space after it failed to adhere to it's built in failsafe protocols. Yup, that's right, it seemed to have ignored the safety guidelines hardcoded into it's software and decided to continue it's course into restricted airspace ...  23 miles that is, into restricted airspace.

It's believed that communications between the ground crew and the UAV "cut off" making the drone continue on it's path. Failsafe protocols were supposed to kick in at that point and make the drone circle the spot but it failed to do so. The error was put down in part due to a logic error in the software, something that most software engineers will agree is not the simplest thing to detect, especially on such high tech military hardware as is the case here. Just for your peace of mind, the MQ-8 UAV is in fact capable of not only performing surveillance tasks but also capable of carrying 70mm Hydra Rocket Pods or Hellfire Tankbuster missiles. That's enough to take out pretty much everything in a city block and then some. Now that's quite an example of software engineering gone horribly wrong. Here's a toast to the limited days of the human race. So say we all.

Related articles

• MQ-8 Fire Scout UAV resists its human opressors, joyrides over Washington DC (engadget.com)
• Navy's flying drone goes rogue, heads for nation's capital (geek.com)
• Navy Lost Control of Drone Over D.C. Due To "Software Issue" [Drones] (gizmodo.com)
• 21st Century Hunter-Killer UAV Enters Restricted DC Airspace - Skynet Alive? (eset.com)
• ROBOT KILL-CHOPPER GOES ROGUE above Washington DC! - The Register (wilderside.wordpress.com)
• For a software error, UAV MQ-8 reaches restricted airspace near Washington DC (theregister.co.uk)
• Rogue Robo-Chopper Flies Into Restricted Airspace Above Washington (crunchgear.com)
• DEFCON 1! -- We Have A Situation!: Robotic Death-Chopper Goes Rogue Over DC (geekologie.com)
• Unmanned Navy craft flies into restricted airspace (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• ROBOT KILL-CHOPPER GOES ROGUE above Washington DC! (go.theregister.com)

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MW2 Night Vision Goggles Review

So I recently purchased the Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Edition Box set. The Prestige box comes with, an XBOX 360 “Hardened Edition” of the game, the Night Vision Goggles, a head modelled on Captain John “Soap” Mactavish and an art book of the game. So I thought I’d put my two cents down on what I thought of it.

 

So to start I’ve taken a couple of images of the Night Vision goggles, click them to enlarge so you can have a clearer look. One thing is for sure though, this is a pretty awesome geek toy to have and is currently sitting proudly on my shelf in my room. Not only does it look great on the mohawked-out mannequin “Soap” but it performs actually a lot better than expected. I thought this may be a bit of a gimmick inclusion however they really do work.

 

The test I used was my en-suite inside my bedroom as after turning off the bedroom lights and closing the en-suite door, the bathroom is remarkably pitch black without even the faintest trace of a photon. It worked stunningly. As soon as you flick the on switch, the area in front of you lights up like a Christmas tree on fire. It was clear and bright enough to even read the larger lettering on shampoo bottles and other random labels around the room. What must be said is that the lens does make it a little bit hard to judge depth of field as everything is slightly magnified.

 

 

There are two dials, one on the front for focusing the camera and one on the body to adjust the eye pieces. There’s the on switch on the left which is very easy to get to and the next switch turns the image from either real time grey and white to the awesome green hue mode. The last switch turns it from what it calls “Stealth mode” to “Long Distance” mode which essentially powers down or lights up the main infra reds.

 

The view from within a view. Which is all powered by a battery pack that goes to the back of your head (acting as a stabiliser support type strap) and is powered by 5 AA batteries.

 

 

All in all, they’re a fantastic piece of kit, and I’d highly recommend them to anyone whose thinking of adding something cool to their shelf. Current retail price at time of posting: £119.99.

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Let the Battle of the Real World Mechs Commence!

Mechs are plain and simply the ultimate wet dream of any self-respecting kotaku or tech geek. There’s nothing that can describe the pure awesomeness of an armoured humanoid figure standing taller than the average building raining all amounts of hell on it’s intended recipient. Well it seems that our dear friends over in the Far East have taken this wet dream and decided to turn it into a reality with what appears to be little more than an arms race for the greatest mech ever constructed.

 

I’ve posted in the past about the real life Gundam in Tokyo before on T.U.S but it appears other inventive individuals have taken to this as a geek off challenge. Ever since the mega Gundam was built in Tokyo in 2009, there have been many many models built since to rival this behemoth. So below are just some of my favourite to date (click to enlarge any of the photos):

 

Bandai’s RX-78-2 Gundam, Tokyo Japan

 

On March 11th 2009, in order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Gundam anime series, Bandai built this mammoth of a 1:1 real size scale of their famous RX-78-2 model Gundam. This epic figure that towered over Tokyo reached a staggering 60 feet into the air which approximates to the same height as a decent sized city block. However it doesn’t just stop there, the head of this Gundam actually moved and emitted lights and lasers from over 50 different places on it’s exoskeleton along with 14 jets of mist for special effects. Quite an awesome feat to live up to. (NB, it must be noted that this mech was only up for a few months but is due to be relocated to another place in Japan, now equipped with a Saber!)

 

 

UPDATE (10/08/2010): A very cool time HD time lapse video has been thrown out onto the internet and wow is it stunning.

 

 

Chinese student Bi Heng’s ‘Kwansformer’, Beijing China

 

This 9.7 meter tall giant of a mech was constructed from the remains of a “Jiedang CA10 military truck”. It in fact was constructed by a 26 year old student for his class project at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) and took just one semester to complete. The Mech was designed and based around the famous Chinese general, Guan Yu and copies the same “Green Dragon Crescent Blade”. Heng now aims to create a series of Kwansformers which include the Monkey King and the Beijing Olympic Torch. So far he has been offered money for his current Kwansformer but has rejected it citing, “Trasformers are a cherished memory of the post-80s generation, but these people are still not rich enough to buy my work.” However at a cost of around $43,000 to build, if this at least doesn’t get him an A then I’m not sure what will.

 

 

Tetsujin 28, Kobe Japan

The 60 foot tall Tetsujin 28-go was erected in honor of it’s creator Mitsuteru Yokoyama for which Kobe is his birthplace. This mech aside from it’s sheer awesomeness has done more than just look awesome. It’s apparently having a profound effect in Kobe, a city devastated by the Great Hashin Earthquake (1995), as that it’s bringing in millions of tourists that would not otherwise have come. So mechs really can be a force for good.

 

 

 

Optimus Prime, Beijing China

 

Now for a mech with a more western twist, there now stands a 40 foot tall Optimus Prime looming over Beijing. Built across from the Green Dream Park in the Northwest of the city, this Optimus Prime was built entirely from recycled parts, that’s 5 truckloads of recycled parts apparently and weighing in at over 6 tonnes. So yup, think of this as the environmental mech helping to save the world one tin can at a time.

 

Shoichi Nakamoto’s Z-Gundam, Okayama Japan

 

Another product of an inspired youth was born in the hillside of Okayama. Shoichi Nakamoto’s largely unknown Gundam is impressive in that not only was it built single handedly, it’s large and complex enough a structure to house it’s own little cockpit. Yup, that’s right, you can actually sit in this mech and with a number of gears and levers, may one day pilot the giant suit.

 

 

 

So which is your favourite? Let me know on Twitter, Facebook or in the comments section below. Personally, my favourite is still the RX-72 in Toyko. It’s a mammoth of a beast and if rumours are true that they’re adding a Saber to it’s hand, well that’ll do me just fine.

 

Sources: Weird Asia, Pink Tentacle, Bitter Swee, AsianBeat, Danny Choo, Mechadamashii

Technorati Tags: mech,gundam,tokyo

 

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The Taranis: Prepare to Soil Yourself

The MoD (Ministry of Defence) today released the most advanced and possibly scariest looking aircraft to date. Looking from something that came out of the Stark Expo, this new fighter plane is called the Taranis and what makes this such a big deal is that it’s an unmanned stealth jet plane. That’s right, it’ll fly it’s merry little self to a land far far away and bomb the merry daylights out of it and be done and home before you even knew it left. OK so that’s a slight exaggeration, but it will be piloted by a crew back home and it’ll mostly be used for surveillance, but come on, how cool does it look!

 

Hit the jump for more photos, videos and information on this beast of a bird.

 

 

Below is a rather informative video from the ITN news broadcasting station showing off the announcement ceremony as well as some crap generic CGI to go along with it.

 

 

 

The Press Release taken from the BAE Systems website:

 

Named after the Celtic god of thunder, the concept demonstrator will test the possibility of developing the first ever autonomous stealthy Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) that would ultimately be capable of precisely striking targets at long range, even in another continent.

Should such systems enter into service, they will at all times be under the control of highly trained military crews on the ground.
Speaking at the unveiling ceremony at BAE Systems in Warton, Lancashire, Minister for International Security Strategy Gerald Howarth said: “Taranis is a truly trailblazing project. The first of its kind in the UK, it reflects the best of our nation’s advanced design and technology skills and is a leading programme on the global stage.”

Representing the pinnacle of UK engineering and aeronautical design, Taranis is an informal partnership of the UK MoD and industry talents including BAE Systems, Rolls Royce, QinetiQ and GE Aviation.

Speaking on behalf of the industry team, Nigel Whitehead, Group managing director of BAE Systems' Programmes & Support business, said: "Taranis has been three and a half years in the making and is the product of more than a million man-hours. It represents a significant step forward in this country's fast-jet capability. This technology is key to sustaining a strong industrial base and to maintain the UK's leading position as a centre for engineering excellence and innovation."

The Taranis prototype will provide the UK MoD with critical knowledge on the technical and manufacturing challenges and the potential capabilities of Unmanned Combat Air Systems.

Flight trials are due in 2011.

Source: BAE Systems

 

So whether or not you believe this is the beginnings of Cylon Raiders or Doomsday by Terminators, the plane isn’t due for testing until next year and I guess there’s nothing we can do about that. By the way, I love how on their website, the only item they have in the sidebar is “Military Air Solutions”. Oh I believe this is so much more than just a solution ...

Source: Geekologie

Technorati Tags: BAE,Taranis,Stealth Fighter

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Epic Light Warfare Short Film

An awesome short film done by young asian film maker, Freddie Wong. This short film lasts just over a minute but demonstrates the use of lights with camera’s performing long exposures. In it Freddie depicts a street gunfight of epic proportions using nothing but clever camera tricks and many LED lights.

 

Click the jump for the superb demo of light warfare.

 

 

Freddie gives a short tutorial and a behind the scenes video demonstrating how you could make your own “Light Painting”.

“The idea behind light painting is that if you open the shutter, you can draw lines by moving the flashlight around in front of the lens. So hold the shutter open, get in front, and try drawing something in the air. If you have a camera flash, you can have someone stand in place, and flash them. Then have them hold still and draw around them. Experiment!”

Source: Freddiew.com

 

Also make sure you check out the rest of his videos which I might add, are also pretty awesome and can be found here!

 

Related articles

• Light Warfare, An Action Packed Demo of Light Painting (laughingsquid.com)
• Light Warfare Replaces Violence With Epic Photography [Art] (gizmodo.com)

LiveJournal Tags: light painting,freddie wong

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DARPA now looking to create Terminators

Image via Wikipedia

DARPA, the extreme arm of the Pentagon’s military technology research are fully underway in creating the world’s first Terminator. Or at least they’ve started to.

 

DARPA are in the second stages of a 5 month old project into creating solid’s that can fold themselves and build themselves into shapes without the need of human interaction. Akin to origami. Except this is for military purposes.

 

The project is being headed up by researchers in Harvard University, MIT and DARPA themselves and looks to have a working model of a “morphable object” ready by Spring 2010.

For the sciencey part and the applications of such technology, here is a section from Wired.com’s article

 

One day, that could lead to “morphing aircraft and ground vehicles, uniforms that can alter themselves to be comfortable in any climate, and ’soft’ robots that flow like mercury through small openings to enter caves and bunker complexes.” A soldier could even reach into a can of unformed goop, and order up a custom-made tool or a “universal spare part.”

 

One team from Harvard is working on a kind of “generalized Rubik’s Cube” that can fold into all kinds of shapes. Another is trying to order large strands of synthetic DNA to bind together in a “molecular Velcro.” An MIT group is building “self-folding origami” machines that “use specialized sheets of material with built-in actuators and data. These machines use cutting-edge mathematical theorems to fold themselves into virtually any three-dimensional object.”

 

So who’s to say that Skynet isn’t in fact bang on time? Who knows. Either way, I say this is bad for humanity. Especially if DARPA, a military research corporation is backing in.

 

Related articles by Zemanta

• DARPA working on "Silent Talk" telepathic communication for soldiers (engadget.com)
• MIT Goes Whole Hog For Open Access (cenblog.org)

BuzzNet Tags: terminator,darpa,military

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Simo Häyhä makes Rambo look like a little girl

Image via Wikipedia

The story of Simo Hayha is one that can only really be described as epic bravery on a whole new level. This story of a simple Finnish farmer turned Rambo killing machine is something quite out of the ordinary.

 

The Year is 1939, and the flames of the Second World War are just beginning to ignite. The Soviets (rather foolishly) decide that Finland would be a good and easy country to march into and invade, so they throw 2 millions soldiers into the fray. No problems so far right? Wrong. If they’d known that Simo wasn’t best pleased with this, they might have just reconsidered.

 

After completing just one mandatory year in military training, the tiny 5”3 farmer decided to take matters into his own hands. He grabbed his trusty Mosin-Nagant rifle the “Pystykorva”, packed some food, took up a white camo suit and left for the woods.   He also only used Iron Sights on his rifle rather than the more accurate telescopic sights used in real sniper rifles, to make himself a smaller target, something that Russian snipers hadn’t quite figured especially when the sun reflected off their scopes all day long. That and he packed snow into his mouth so as to hide his breathing. Yup, snow into mouth. It was there that under six feet of snow, and  20-40 degrees below zero that Simo would set himself up for the Russians. Everyday he’d go out with just enough food for a day, and a few clips of ammo and along with his knowledge of the woods, go hunt commies.

 

(iron sight on the left, scope on the right)

 

Soon the Russians were beginning to hear rumours of dozens of their men being shot out in the open yet nobody knew who or what it was. It was here on that Simo Hayha became known as “The White Death”. The were so scared of Simo that they mounted entire missions just to kill this one man. They sent taskforces to hunt him down and guess what, he killed them all. Then they sent out specialist teams of counter snipers (Snipers trained to take out other snipers) and guess what, yes he took all of them out too. In fact over the course of 100 days, Simo has 502 confirmed kills with his trusty rifle (a further 40 unconfirmed) and with his SMG, another 150 or so, taking his kill count to a Halo-esque 705 kills in total.

 

After sending taskforces and counter sniping teams, the Russians ran out of ideas and used up their artillery to just carpet bomb the area. Yes you read it just fine, carpet bomb this one man. In fact they got the location right and poor Simo got hit by a cloud of shrapnel which tore his coat up, but guess what, he was just fine and totally unfazed. Lets see Chuck Norris do that.

 

On March 6th 1940, a Russian infantry got lucky and shot Simo in the jaw with an explosive bullet blowing “half his head off” according to eye witnesses. He fell unconscious and into a coma and was taken away back HQ to presumably be sent to the morgue. But nope, miraculously 11 days later he awoke from his coma on the exact same day the the Winter War in Finland ended. In fact he lived till he was 93 years young.

 

The Russians lost half the taskforce they sent over to Finland, more than 40 times that of Finnish casualties and Simo was awarded 5 medals for valour including the Kollaa Cross (the Medal of Honour equivalent). He has also been largely credited for having the most kills in Sniper history. Now why an awesome film hasn’t been made of this I don’t know. Makes Enemy at the Gate’s Vassili Zaitsev look rather insignificant doesn’t it.

 

Hats off to the great Simo Hayha, arguably the greatest unknown sniper of all time.

 

 

Technorati Tags: Simo hayha,sniper,warfare,world war 2,epic

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Released Full Trailer

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (COD4) is definitely one of the best shooters I’ve played in a while, especially since the days of the old (not new) CounterStrike. The latest offering from the guys at Infinity Ward carries on directly from the first game so stay away from this trailer if for some reason you haven’t completed it and therefore considered an automatic Noob.

Take a look after the jump for the full narrated trailer of Call of Duty (6): Modern Warfare 2, the Transcript of the Narration and some more screenshots. COD6 due to be released 11th November 2009 for the PC, Playstation and Xbox.

Here is the transcript of what was narrated in the video. Apologies for any mistakes but I’m not great with the Russian accent:

Makarov: Revenge is like a ghost, it takes over every man it touches. It’s thirst needs to be quenched, until the last man standing has been falling.

American: This appears to be the work of ultranationalists led by the shadow of Zhakaev, one Vladimir Makarov. The Kremlin however sees it differently. Zakhaev kept Makarov in check, but no longer.

Makarov: The world’s men of action will look and wander, how it came to this.

[American 1] He’s got a contact in Rio.

[American 2] Don’t you have a guy on the inside?

[American 1] He’s gone silent.

American: Makarov’s reach is spreading, this can only end one way.

Makarov: You may be able to destroy me, but the beast will eventually come for you. *russian message at end*

Here are some more screenshots of the game for you to drool over:

Technorati Tags: COD6,Call of Duty,Modern Warfare 2,Infinity Wards,Shooters,Gaming

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IBM Patents Bullet Dodging Body Armor

 

If we need proof that the future of modern warfare will incorporate a new generation of super soldiers then this is it. IBM, the rather timid computing company, have recently been granted a patent to create a “Bionic Body Armor” designed to theoretically make you dodge bullets.

 

As the rather humorous diagram depicts, it would constantly be emitting radio waves to detect any oncoming projectiles such as bullets, RPGs,Cruise Missiles and Tactical Nukes and calculate whether or not it would hit you. Once it determines that yes, that thing travelling at roughly 400m/s (for a rifle bullet), is in fact going to hit you, it sends the equivalent of electric jolts to certain muscles in order to dodge the incoming bullet. Much like scalding your hand on a hot handle, just with life and death involved. Now I wonder what would happen if you were near a power line? Would that suddenly make you do the limbo as you passed under?

Source: Engadget + Gizmodo

Technorati Tags: Technology,Futurism,Bullet,Armor,Matrix,Warfare

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