Weekend Reading: The Challenges of Playing Cooperatively

Cooperative modes have been a part of the modern gaming industry for quite some time as plenty of people want to experience their favorite games alongside a friend, either locally or online.

As such, in the same week, we were treated with two great games that emphasize co-op action: Borderlands 2 and Torchlight 2.

While, at a glance, they seem quite different, one being a stylized shooter while the other is a medieval fantasy dungeon crawler, in the end they’re both role -playing games with an emphasis on loot and are much better experienced alongside your friends.

Sadly, playing cooperatively can pose a number of challenges, mainly because you’re dealing with other human beings. As such, you and your buddies need to synchronize schedules, make sacrifices, and try to stay dedicated to the game.

While these challenges may not seem like much, they become quite hard to complete based on a number of factors. Synchronization can be tricky when all of the players need to work or study during the day, making sacrifices becomes harder when someone has a family to spend time with, and staying dedicated to a game can become tiresome if it doesn’t bring any excitement as you progress through it.

What’s more, technical challenges can also rear their ugly head. These include bugs with the game, problems with the actual cooperative mode, or issues with a player’s connection.

I rec ently ran into some of these problems while trying to play Borderlands 2 alongside my wife on the PC. We recently moved and our Internet provider hasn’t set up an actual connection. As such, we were thankful for Borderlands 2’s support for offline LAN, but it turns out it’s not that simple to play alongside another person offline. I had to go through several threads on the game’s forums in order to find out that you need to set up a port forwarding rule on your router if you want two computers on the same network to play together.

Eventually, however, we have managed to achieve this and after completing the rest of the challenges, we can reward ourselves with some quality Borderlands 2 cooperative action.

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FTL Diary: The Giant Threat of Space

The biggest problem with space is that it’s pretty much infinite and that there’s no way of knowing what’s out there.

FTL, the roguelike title from Subset Games, understands that any man who has the size and the unknowingness of space pressed upon his mind will feel fear and the game then manages to use that feeling to great effect.

When you first run the game it seems simple enough: get a ship, a crew and a number of meager resources and then explore a randomly generated univers e while trying to escape an unbeatable fleet that’s always snapping at your heel.

Soon after the sense of discovery is replaced by constant dread, a fear that’s deep inside my gaming mind every time I get ready to push the bright yellow Jump button and then move to a new area.

Each star system inside a larger sector can contain a straight up battle, a multiple choice situation, a merchant or nothing at all.

As the game progresses, the encounters with enemy ships become much more difficult, the choices are starker and the feeling of dread increases.

I had moments when the only thing I wanted was to get to a store in order to repair my hull and get some more missiles only to get into a sector where I was boarded and my whole crew was killed.

I had one game where I had more scap (FTL’s main resource) than I knew what to do with and very weak weapons, yet I was unable to get to a store that sold weaponry fo r three sectors and I was destroyed by a much more powerful enemy.

The randomness and the roguelike permanent death combine to create a game where every choice and every move is scary but that keeps me coming back after each death, hoping for better star layout and better overall results.

Via: FTL Diary: The Giant Threat of Space

Even Apple Doesnt Use Its Own Maps

Unless you’ve been living under a rock lately, you've probably heard about the recent iOS Maps fiasco. While the media always exaggerates in reporting these blunders, Apple itself has admitted that more work is necessary to bring the iOS Maps up to par.

While Apple prides itself on offering in-house developed solutions, the company is still forced (for now) to display Google Maps on its web site for whoever is trying to locate a store.

Pictured above is Apple’s Google-powered store locator in San Francisco, USA.

The Cupertino, California-based computer giant cannot risk misguiding customers looking to pay them a visit, whether it’s for buying something new, or even for returning a product.

CEO Tim Cook has promised that his company’s Maps service will get better in time. When that happens, Apple.com is likely to start using the new Apple Maps too.

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Emacs Vulnerability Fixed in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and Ubuntu 11.10

Canonical has published in a security notice details about an Emacs vulnerability for its Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and Ubuntu 11.10 operating systems.

According to Canonical, Emacs could be made to run programs, as your login, if it opened a specially crafted file.

Hiroshi Oota and Paul Ling discovered that the Emacs package incorrectly handled search paths and it incorrectly handled certain eval forms in local-variable sections. A local attacker could execute arbitrary Lisp code with the privileges of the user invoking the program.

The security flaws can be fixed if you upgrade your system(s) to the latest emacs23 and emacs23-common versions. To apply the update, run the Update Manager application.

In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes. A system restart won't be necessary to implement the changes, but Emacs needs to be r estarted.

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Wikipad CEO Disagrees That 10.1-Inch Gamepad Tablet Is Too Expensive

Even though 10.1-inch tablets have been selling for $499/499 Euro, ever since the first iPad came out, some feel that Wikipad, as a product that doesn't have brand strength and reputation to carry it forward, should have been launched with a lower tag.

The Wikipad CEO acknowledges this, but believes the situation should be taken as a reason to want it, rather than gloss over it.

"This is our first product into the market," consummate salesman and Wikipad CEO James Bower told Engadget in an interview. "We'v e self-funded the whole concept to this point with a couple of us founders. No VC money or anything,"

People wonder why someone would get the Wikipad when they can buy a Sony PlayStation Vita for $249.99.

Wikipad's head says the answer is simple: Wikipad is a two-in-one device: a game pad and a 10.1-inch tablet, not a 7-inch or 5-inch gadget.

And since 10.1-inch slates ship for $500 on their own, that means that “half” of the Wikipad is given for free.

It doesn't hurt that the product isn't unibody. The tablet can be taken out of the gamepad “dock” and used like one would use any Android slate. It even has Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which many others have yet to receive.

ASUS' Transformer Prime and Infinity, for example, are only now moving away from Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

"What we like to say is, 'If you're gonna spend $249 to get your Vita, and you're gonna spend $499 on an iPad, why don't you just spend $499 and get the Wikipad? That way you can have the best of both worlds,'" he argued.

WikiPad attaches to the gamepad controller through a simple insertion mechanism. Two analog sticks, a D-pad, shoulder buttons and triggers and four front action buttons are distributed on both sides. Sales will begin on October 31, 2012.

Via: Wikipad CEO Disagrees That 10.1-Inch Gamepad Tablet Is Too Expensive

Apple Introduces Map Apps Section on the App Store

After sending out a public statement on the status of its Maps application, Apple recommended that users find and download alternatives from the App Store, until it irons out the bugs.

The company went as far as to recommend rival services such as Bing and Google Maps, as well as more feature-dedicated solutions like Waze, ForeverMap by skobbler, Navigon, AA Satnav, and Garmin solutions.

Tim Cook said in a letter to the Apple fan base, “While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.”

A guide is also available from Apple on how to do that. To go straight to the aforementioned titles on the App Store, the company offers this iTunes lin k.


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Apple Rolls Out New Version of Aperture to Fix Bugs

Shortly after updating Aperture to version 3.4 to add Shared Photo Streams and other enhancements, Apple discovered that a new update was in order (3.4.1) to patch some bugs that affected syncing, photo viewing, and the stability of the software.

Launched mostly as a compatibility update following the release of OS X 10.8.2, Aperture 3.4 added support for Shared Photo Streams on OS X Mountain Lion and a new File menu command to open

the current photo library in iPhoto.

The usual performance and st ability improvements were included as well, but it seems the update also came bundled with some bugs.

Which is why Apple is now offering up Aperture 3.4.1 as the latest version of its professional photography software on Macs.

The new release addresses an installer issue that could cause the application to quit unexpectedly on launch, and improves the reliability of syncing photos to iOS devices via iTunes, according to the changelog.

There was an issue with downloading and viewing photos synced from Facebook albums which this update also patches. Other stability issues are also addressed.

Aperture 3.4.1 requires OS X (Lion) 10.7.5 or OS X 10.8.2 (Mountain Lion) or later.

Apple says “Aperture combines the control and speed pros want for demanding photo tasks with the easy learning curve iPhoto users need to step up to an advanced photo tool.”

The software is fully optimized for the new MacBook Pro with Retina display, “letting you browse and edit high-resolution images with remarkable clarity and resolution.”

The optimized Viewer allows photography buffs to see more of their high-resolution (RAW) images on-screen with pixel-for-pixel accuracy.

“And with a new unified photo library, you can now move seamlessly from iPhoto to Aperture — and back — without having to import, export, or reprocess your photos,” says the Mac maker.

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