Stick around, things are about to get real interesting!

This morning, a part of my childhood died. One of my favorite actors as a child, Corey Haim, died this morning from an aparant drug overdose. Toxicology reports are still incoming, but it was never a secret about Corey's drug problems. Best known for films like The Lost Boys and License to Drive, Haim was one of the "two Coreys", and was trying to make a comeback with long time friend Corey Feldman.

Haim's death is the latest in a line of celeb drug deaths, most recently Brittany Murphy, who's prescription drug problems compounded her medical issues. When will Hollywood wake up and see what they are doing to young stars? When will Hollywood take responsibility and stop stuffing their movie set trailers with all kinds of drugs and alcohol?

Anyways, the world will miss you Corey. Rest in peace brother...

Well, Star Trek Online's very vocal community has gotten to be way too much for the team. As of today, Cryptic has posted a ban on "I Quit" threads. Anyone posting such things will have their posts removed and receive an infraction.

"That being said, the "I'm Quitting" posts have gotten to a point where they are nothing but negativity. For the most part they are either posted with the intent to flame continuing users, or become the target themselves for attacks and flaming by continuing users. This has got to stop.
As a result, I will be immediately closing any "I'm Quitting" threads from this point on."
 
Sounds like damage control to me...

Today I became a first hand witness to chemtrailing. The video that follows is my own footage.

Star Trek Online is not doing well folks. Look, I like the game. I've been trying to support it since beta...but something wicked this way comes...The STO apocalypse is upon us, and here are the signs.

The state of the game as seen by the average gamer logging in amounts to a dead server throughout most of the day. If it weren't for the few vocal people in Zone chat (who are all bashing the game BTW), the server would seem super dead.

If you try to play at any time but primetime, you are met with a universe that is slowly emptying, like the water spiralling down the bathtub drain. PVP queues, which used to be packed, are now so empty no game ever gets started. Rooms where 35ish people used to wait in queue are now filled with 1-4 people usually on one side or the other, stuck waiting for...NOTHING...because the game will not properly start.

PVP is dead.

Auto-grouping is yet another sign of the STO apocalypse. Where a few weeks back, you could enter one of the auto-grouping levels at any time of the day and people would pop in immediately. Now, again every time but US primetime, the auto-grouping feature pulls in one person here and there, when it feels like it, usually when I am right at the end of the mission already.

Auto-grouping is dead.

The third sign has to do with Earthdock. Still more crowded than any other area in the game, but not nearly as much as before, SB01 is now lag free...why? Because either everyone is Admiral and has no need for SB01 anymore, or the game is dying. Maybe a bit of both. I went to SB01 at key points throughout the day DURING THE WEEKEND mind you, and it was practically a ghost town...again, Zone chat filled with gold spam and a few players talking crap about the game.

The fourth sign, not as much of a bad sign since it actually HELPS the game, is the exchange. There are far less items, and more reasonably priced items than just 2 weeks prior. You can explain it away as the community giving up on the exchange, but the truth is far more sinister. It's more like the players gave up on the game.

With only a couple of days left until subs run out, you have to wonder just how many will still be around. Many have left the game already, saying screw the remaining play time, and the evidence is quite obvious just by logging in for a while. The game is a ghost town mere weeks after it had claimed a huge super audience.

I have seen this same thing happen before, and not all of the games involved died. A lot of them did perish though.

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes - A great game that had great potential...the bugs destroyed it from the start, it never got off it's feet. Status: ALIVE (but barely)

DDO - A critical mess at first. No content, very poor performance, and a lot of bugs were what doomed this game. A revamp and relaunch on a different pay model, mixed with DX10 support and a ton of new content, have saved this game. Status: ALIVE

Auto Assault - A "Twisted Metal" style MMO that never even had a chance. Status: DEAD

Tabula Rasa - The second sci-fi MMO from NCSoft that completely flopped. The reason? NCSoft wouldn't let Garriot do his thing for one. Once he left his own product, it was over. Status: DEAD

WAR - Warhammer Online had a strong beta...lots of good praise. But for some reason, the game launched and took an immediate nose-dive. Bugs, poor performance, lack of endgame. Sound familiar? Status: ALIVE

Age of Conan - One of the worst launches in the history of MMO's according to some people. Nothing could save this game at first, not even all the toons running around with their tits hanging out. The active, vocal, and very angry Funcom community complained and withdrew subs to get what they wanted. Status: ALIVE (and about to get it's first expansion pack!)

Earth and Beyond - Did this game even launch? Of course, but no one knew about it. All for the better, because it had more wrong with it than they could be bothered to fix or change. Status: DEAD

Matrix Online - This game never had a chance, and Warner knew it. SOE should have known it. I think we all had hoped that SOE would flesh the game out more and do more with it. Unfortunately they never did. MxO was their bastard step-child, and they treated it as such. Status: DEAD

These are just some of the high profile launch failures out there, and they all share the common thread of:

A.) lack of content
B.) BUGS/performance
C.) Devs that took the wrong steps/made the wrong changes
D.) Poor marketing
E.) a mass exodus of players

This may or may not mean anything for STO, but if you look at the signs of what has happened with other games compared to the true state of STO as it stands now, you may have cause for alarm. In my opinion the state of the game is bad, and needs some emergency action if it is going to survive the coming months.

Cryptic has finally lifted the veil on their upcoming STF raid-i-sodes for Star Trek Online. Below is the outline of all the content that you can look forward to in the next couple of months. All I can say is the last few days of communication from Cryptic to us, the playerbase, has saved my subscription. I hope this game can eventually give us all what we truly want out of a Star Trek MMO. From the looks of the below content, they are well on track!






STF: Infected

Starfleet has lost contact with one of its star bases. More than 400 officers could be lost, including a key member of Starfleet's Borg Task Force. Infiltrate the base and take the fight to the Borg!

• Retake the Sibiran system and shut down a transwarp conduit being used by the Borg to establish a foothold in the Gamma Orionis Sector Block.
• Investigate the strange new nanovirus the Borg are using to assimilate entire worlds at alarming speeds.
• Retake Starbase 89 before its fully taken over by the Borg, and save what is left of the Starfleet personnel that are still there.
• Locate Captain Ogen's Strike Team and Rebecca Simmons, the lead Borg Task Force researcher working on a cure for the nanovirus. Both went deep into the Borg infected starbase and haven't reported back in quite some time.
• It's a five-man mission. Players will not be able to complete it without teaming up with other players.
• The mission spans space and ground gameplay.
• Applies to level 43 +
• Encounters are daunting. Lots of enemies. Designed to be challenging.
• Releases this month.


STF: The Cure

The Klingon Defense Force has been conducting its own investigation into the Borg advance, and they believe that the Collective's next target is the Vorn system. Enemies may have to unite when confronted by a greater foe.

• Assist the I.K.S. Kang in a desperate battle with the Borg.
• Explore a planet that has been completely assimilated. Can you rescue the warriors before they are taken over by the Borg?
• Fight at the side of Ja'rod, son of Lursa.
• Free Klingon ships from Borg control, and gain their assistance in a final battle with a Borg fleet.


STF: Khitomer Accord

Finally, the mysteries of the Borg attack on Vega Colony are revealed! Why did the Borg attack there, and how was an unprepared Starfleet able to defeat them?

• Confront the Borg before they can use temporal anomalies to change the past of the Federation.
• Warp back into your own past, in the hours before the attack on Vega Colony.
• Discover a base where thousands of Borg drones are being held in stasis. What are the Borg's plans for this hidden army?
• Starfleet's not ready for the Borg. A defeat here could mean that the entire Alpha Quadrant falls. Balance the scales and fight the Borg for the preservation of the quadrant.
• Learn the fate of a missing Romulan empress.


STF: Into the Hive

The fate of the Alpha Quadrant hangs in the balance. Enter a unicomplex and confront the Borg Queen herself.

• Rescue civilians trapped on an assimilated world.
• Follow the trail to a unicomplex, and penetrate deep into the Borg stronghold.
• Confront the Borg Queen, and fight for the fate of the galaxy.


STF: Children of Khan
Amar Singh escapes from Federation custody, and he and an underground group of Augments steal the U.S.S. Asgard and race toward the remains of the Mutara Nebula. Can you stop them before they start a new Eugenics War?

• Fight a fleet assembled by Princep Khan and his followers.
• Beam onto the Asgard, and battle through its corridors to save civilians and crew.
• Confront the Princep. Can you deal with his transporter tricks?
• Save the divided Asgard and give the saucer section a chance to escape!

In the first of two big STO stories today, we bring you the newest "state of the game" address from the devs. It simply must be read, as it should address any and all concerns with the immediate future of the game.

Pay close attention to all the acknowledgments of the community's concerns at large, and what they intend to do about it. It may be lip service at this point to counter-act all the forum trolling this game recieves. However, I believe CBS/Paramount will keep these guys on task no matter what.




STATE OF THE GAME ADDRESS 02/26/10

Welcome, you noble purveyors of Federation policy and fierce warlords of the Empire! Welcome one and all!

Wait now... Let's just take a moment to de-cloak, disarm and drop our shields, shall we? This State of the Game is of interest to you all.



So very, very much has happened over the last few weeks! It feels like every single time I began to write a new State of the Game, we'd have to quickly douse live shard fires, juggle major play tests and push critical late night patches. By the time the dousing, juggling and pushing was done, the outline of my State of the Game would be hopelessly out of date.

Given how tirelessly we've been working, if some ethereal, omnipotent resident from the Denorios belt hadn't stepped in and considerately put the breaks on space-time with a bit of temporal wizardry, I might have found myself eternally rewriting this single State of the Game.

Thanks to you, oh great wormhole-y one!



Support:
We. Are. Live. And so, supporting you -- yes, you, specifically -- is an effort that consumes us night and day.



Ask any bedraggled MMO developer about launch and they will inevitably assure you that it never, ever gets any easier. Crunch all you like, friend, it only gets harder after the game actually ships. STO is certainly no exception. Supporting a user base as large as ours requires dedication -- no, devotion! Our crew is, thankfully, more than up to the task. We are pushing the workplace warp core to maximum in an effort to better address any and every bug and issue that comes up in-game.



Our objective: Implement as many of the stability and gameplay adjustments you asked for as soon as humanoidly possible (as safe practices allow, of course). To this end, Community has put more effort into moderating the boards and CS has recently staffed up in order to get through your tickets quicker. The idea being, "we can hardly fix what we can't see."



We've also thrown a metric ton of hardware and man hours at getting the server capacity up. Our Network Operations crew has been performing admirably, to say the least. I won't begin to count the times I've heard, "Sorry, Captain! I'm giving it all she's got," come out of their work area, only to be quickly followed by a confident, Scotty-like, "It's done." Beautiful. Almost makes me want to demand them to, "fly her apart, then!" I might just because I know those boys and girls will hold it together in the end, whatever I say.



Bottom line: When -- if -- you see Queues, they should be much shorter and stability will be much better.



Game Adjustments:
Now that the game is out and in your loving hands, we're taking long, hard looks at everything each and every one of you is interested in seeing changed. Cruiser turn rates? Death penalties? More open auto-fire? All those topics and more are being scrutinized by the all-seeing eye of... um, us!



Some of the few things on the way:



Respec


Death Penalty


Difficulty Slider


More open auto-fire


Replayable missions


Improving Memory Alpha


Fixing those Commodity missions


And there are a bunch more. We’ve heard you and are working on all these issues, but we want to make sure that they come out clean and finished. We hate rushing out features – it inevitably leads to us accidentally breaking things we didn’t have time to test. I dunno – like the Red Matter Capacitor or something…

Tribble Coming

In order to better accommodate our players during the Head Start weekend, we merged the physical machines dedicated to our Public Test Shard (Tribble) into the live Shard (Holodeck). It has since been difficult to find viable hardware to test new patches on before pushing them out to you.

Well, we've got more hardware now and Tribble will be up pretty soon. Problem solved.

Once Tribble’s up and running (insert whatever tribble joke you’d like to here) – we’ll be able to start releasing those core game adjustments to you guys for deeper testing and feedback.



Special Task Force: Infected

We're in the final stages of testing the first STF (the five-man raids we internally referred to as "Raidisodes"). STF: Infected is just about ready to release.



You know, I might actually record one of our internal play sessions. The excited cries for more shielding and healing get the blood pumping. Although, once our testers reach the end room and the action really heats up... Well, it's not exactly "family friendly" in there. Definitely going to be an exciting, thrilling mission for our players, though.



After Infected, we'll roll out more STFs. "The Cure", "The Khitomer Accord" and "Into the Hive" are all coming along nicely. We look forward to regularly releasing these and seeing what everyone thinks.



Update 1: Classy Marketable Name Coming Soon

The first major update is receiving a final coat of paint, too.



There's quite a lot of genuinely cool stuff in Update 1: Classy Marketable Name Coming Soon. Expect to see it pushed to the newly revived Tribble Public Test Shard over the next couple weeks.



New Klingon ships? Oh, my yes. And they look...awesome. Re-specs are also coming, of course. All of Cryptic can't wait to see that particular feature out the door. New PvP maps and Fleet Actions are rather nice, too.



Beyond Update 1?

Right now, we're planning it. We haven't set the future of STO's content into stone because so much of it will be determined by you, but we're laying out what we'd like to focus on for the next 6 to 12 months.



Who are the Undine and what drives them?


How can we better exploit the Genesis System to create even more compelling content?


Where can we boldly go next? Where shall we take exploratory missions, as there's so much potential there?


Which faction should be playable next? Romulan? Cardassian? Pakled? Dominion? Horta? Okay, not so much the Pakleds.


And that’s not even the start of it! Ship interiors, more bridges, crew quarters, First Officers, Fleet advancement... You have subscribed to a service that delivers a universe unending, and we shall see that universe populated with compelling content or, by the Prophets, we will die trying.



Some people get that. Some people don't. We're here for those that do.



Throughout development, we guessed Star Trek Online might be polarizing. Some people don't get it and some people simply don't like it... But, others fall in love with their ships and captains and bridge officers. Those are the ones who can't live without beaming down to strange, new planets and participating in lively stories.



We guessed this and still we made a conscious decision to not water things down and go "mass market". Frankly, I think that's perfectly OK. Because, no matter what, there will be one single thing, now and forever, that drives everything we do: you.



We have a very healthy -- and healthily testy -- core community that gets it. And there's nothing we look forward to more than working together to make STO better.



Sad part is, you may not even know it. Far as I can tell, there're no hidden cameras and mics scattered about Cryptic's office. So, how would you know that we refer to our community almost as if it were an absent developer?



"Well, The Users think that we need to do more non-combat."



"Guys, I'm sorry to interrupt, but The Players really want ground auto-attack back. Drop what we're doing."

"We already know what you think about a death penalty, Craig – but The Community really thinks it's a good idea and their opinion is more valid than yours because they probably don't own goats."



It’s a little unnerving -- sometimes feels like we work with a giant multi-headed feedback monster that simultaneously loves and hates us. It whips even as it hugs! It rages even as it cries! And it fumes even when it's happy. It's unnerving, yes, but pretty freakin' rad, too.



What you guys post and say and do in-game and on the forums is the biggest factor we consider when making our decisions.



I am sorry if it ever appears that we're not listening to you or trying to make the game better. Because that is pretty much all we ever do.

Actor Andrew Koenig has been found dead today in a Vancouver park. The cause is apparent suicide. He had previously gone missing, leaving behind a grim note.

Koenig played "Boner" Stabone on Growing Pains, and he is the son of Walter Koenig, Who played Chekov on the original Star Trek series.

Rest in peace Andrew.

The Deftones are back folks, and in good form. Their latest single "Rocket Skates" has just debuted, and to top it all off, the band is giving it away free of charge! Anyhow, check out the song below, and if you like it, pick it up for yourself! The album, "Diamond Eyes, releases May 18th!

Former members of Evanescence teamed up with American Idol's Carly Smithson to create the awesome band We Are The Fallen. Of course, they controversially sound a lot like Evanescence. But seriously, did anyone not expect that anyhow? Anyways, they have released their first single "Bury Me Alive", and I think you should check it out!

Evanescence has unveiled their newest single, "Together Again", on their official Myspace. The song, an unreleased track from "The Open Door", is soft and haunting, and a reminder to us all that Evanescence will never be the same again...



How will the new stuff really sound? Will the original band members joining We Are The Fallen (with American Idol's Carly Smithson) give us the true Evanescence sound once again? Who knows. What is certain is that Amy is not giving up. As troubled as the band has been, she always seems to come out on top.

Today, Cryptic launched a new feature on it's website, asking players what they though of the game as it stands, what they'd like to see in the future, and how long they plan on sticking around. In addition to the couple of pages of multiple-choice questions typical to a survey, Cryptic rewards each player 240 Cryptic Points (for their in game real money store) just for taking the time to finish it.

There is a catch. You need to be a curent subscriber in good standing with Cryptic to complete the survey and qualify for the free 240 CP.

Head on over to the SURVEY PAGE for more info!

It seems Kevin Trudeau can't stay out of trouble with the law. His entire history with the federal government comes from investigations of crookery. Basically he knowingly hocks products on television he knows to be fake, and most importantly "cures" for just about everything that he knows do not work. Every time the man is on television he is trying to steal your money.

So to this I say HOW DARE YOU media for even calling this criminal a "pitchman". If you think Trudeau is pitchman, you have no idea what a real pitchman is.

That being said, look for this criminal to continue to be a crook despite even more jail time.

Some really cool history for anyone interested. ABC7 out of Chicago recently did this story explaining the origins of the now popular snowboard. Definately check this one out!

The long awaited care package glitch fix has arrived via the Modern Warfare 2 1.09 patch. The patch rolled out to the UK and EU regions first, followed by the US the day after. I haven't heard word yet from the asian community on whether or not this patch hit them yet, but I can bet it has.

Patch 1.09 carries with it the fix for the "care package glitch" which has pretty much ruined the atmosphere of games since it was discovered. I'm kinda perturbed that it took them this long to get a working fix out, but hey, what can ya do, right?

Anyways, here are the official 1.09 patch notes:


We've updated the PS3 & Xbox 360 version of Modern Warfare 2, including the following fixes:
- Care Package, Emergency Airdrop, and Sentry Gun marker grenades sprint speed normalized.


- Fix for "infinite care package" exploit.


- Sentry Guns: Improved placement detection, preventing cases of Sentry Guns inside geometry.


- Model 1887: Bling using Akimbo and FMJ combination now has same range and damage as non-Bling Model 1887s.


- Fixes to prevent various XP hacks (including the prevention of negative XP)
Note to PS3 Player: The PS3 still needs to receive one additional fix, regarding the infinite care package exploit which is going out today (Feb 16th 2010). EU Players should be receiving it first, with Sony NA going out later.

Something struck me as completely odd the other day, when comparing the review round-up both on StarTrekOnline.com and on MetaCritic. Now, I understand that developers want to keep the game image clean and fresh, and that unfavorable reviews aren't usually showcased (such was the case with Age of Conan). However, in this case, Cryptic has posted their negative reviews.

Of course, the featured reviews on the main page are not the unfavorable ones, like GameSpot and IGN's reviews for example. But they did indeed list them. The problem at hand is not whether or not the negative reviews were given screen space, but instead the average review percentage.

On the STO website, they list a "Total Adjusted Score" of 72% out of 100%.

This doesn't match up with the same exact round-up on MetaCritic, who estimates an average "meta score" of only 63, and a user rating of 6.4.

So, are the folks at Cryptic fudging the numbers a bit? Is the MetaCritic scoring system just weird? What would YOU score the game personally? Let us know in the comments thread below, and stay tuned for my "review" of Star Trek Online coming over the weekend.

A small "fix-it" patch came down this morning for the Star Trek Online community. Not a whole lot to say about this one as it stands, so I'll let the notes speak for themselves.



Some issues were found after last night's patch that were preventing some players from turning in missions or viewing some remote contacts.

While it is our goal to help clean up your remote contacts list so that at higher levels you do not see every repeatable mission at every level, there was some confusion about how this worked and led to many people thinking they could no longer do missions (when in many cases - but not all - they still could).

We're reverting the remote contact changes for now, as it was blocking progression for some players, until the system is working as intended. So temporarily - no restrictions at all on remote contacts.

A few other bug fixes were resolved today, and we're taking this opportunity to include them as well.

Thank you for submitting bugs and for the many detailed threads in the Bug Forums. They are invaluable in helping the dev team track down corner cases.

Release Notes
•Repeatable missions are again no longer level restricted and will show up on your remote contact list at all levels if avaialable
•Fixed an issue where teams could not switch instances in Deepspace maps. Note - this only fixes the instance button on the map screen. The mini-map instance button will be fixed in a later update.
•Players should be able to complete the Badlands and Treasure Trading Station missions regardless of the order they complete certain objectives in, and regardless of dialog options at the end of the mission.
•Addressed an issue where a full list of remote contacts would appear when you first map transfered, but would then prune down to only a few contacts. Remote contacts should now be visible regardless of the progress made on the mission thus far.
•Prior to last night's update, some players were able to take and progress Borg sector missions before completing the intended initial hand-off from Quinn to 4 of 10. This put some players in an odd mission state when we then required the hand-off mission from Quinn before you could talk to any other contacts. We've made some fixes to help alleviate this issue. For now, if you feel you are still in this state, drop the mission from Quinn in the Omega Fleet, go back to Risa and retake the initial hand-off mission from Quinn to rendezvous with the USS Victory where you will talk to 4 of 10 and put yourself back to the intended mission flow. In addition to fix people in this specific state, we've updated DVak, 4 of 10, and Karbo so that players can contact them to turn in a complete Borg sector mission even if they hadn't completed the initial handoff mission.

In an interview recently with the Wall Street Journal, James Cameron revealed the release date for Avatar on DVD and Blu-Ray, and detailed a second release for the 3D version later in the year.

"It's all right on schedule," Cameron claimed. "We'll do the Blu-ray and the standard def DVD April 22nd, that's our plan as of right now, and that'll be pretty much bare bones. And then we'll do a value-added DVD and a 3D Blu-Ray in I think November sometime."

Fox would not confirm or deny these dates, but I will take Cameron's word for it. Look for more on this as it breaks!

Funny and weird news today out of the Palestinian protests of Israel. It appears several Na'vi have come from Pandora to join the fight! WTF? Are these idiots serious?

Let me put this in perspective. Imagine showing up to a protest dressed as Spock, Darth Vader, Garfield the cat, or Charlie Brown...GOOD GRIEF!

On the bright side, the brightly painted idiots managed to get front page exposure on the biggest news site on the net. No, not mine silly lol...CNN.com.

James Cameron, are you seeing this shit?

ABC recently revealed the secret behind the "flash sideways" scenes in this season of LOST. According to ABC, "A flash sideways is not a flashback, flash-forward or an alternate timeline. It posits what would have happened if Oceanic flight 815 didn't crash on the island but instead landed in Los Angeles".

So basically, the "flash sideways" scenes imagine what the islanders' lives would be like had Jacob not meddled in their futures. This is a big reveal from a company that is usually tight lipped about such things. However, this is the last season of the show, so closing as many threads in the quilt as possible is a welcome thing.

Stay tuned for more on LOST's final season!

In a surprise move, Cryptic has already initiated a buddy key trial program. This is in the face of massive gold spam already present in the game and in the forum mailbox. According to reports, Cryptic claimed over 1 million players in the retail head start. This is a pretty nice starting number for ANY fledgling MMO, so why they would feel the need to increase it further this early on is beyond me.

For example, complaints flood the forums about the queue system and how the server is always full at prime time in the US. One would think the company would take the time to increase ppulation flow through and stability before initiating a buddy key/trial program.

Besides that, other companies that have offered early buddy key systems or "invite-a-friend" programs have also offered rewards for converted accounts. Not the case here. It's just a 5 day key, and you must have a retail copy to claim the key, which you will pass on...hopefully not to a gold seller/spammer.

I don't mean to be so critical about this, as it may turn out to be good in the end. It just had a couple of points that rubbed me the wrong way, and I thought I'd share. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Today we bring you the patch notes to this morning's huge bug fix update for Star Trek Online! Lots of performance and bug fixes in this one, definately a nice patch!

There are a few key things missing of course, but if they keep patching with this consistancy, the game should clean up nicely and in a timely manner. Cryptic, thanks for listening to the community's bug complaints! KUDOS!







General

•Power trays were acting strangely and not remembering what you had placed in your first slot. Code has gone in to address this and should now remember what power you place there.
•Work towards improving game performance when the shard is at peak capacity.
•Fleet Bank Updates - Options are now grayed out and disabled for players who don't have permission to change them. The Limit field is now filled with the current limits set. And restrictions should now be working properly. They were not updating until you switch tabs and then back. Fixed a bug where players could circumvent limits that were set.
•There were many areas where if you logged out, you would not log in to the right location. We've gone through the maps and hopefully addressed these so that you always log back in on the last safe static map you were on.
•Renaming should now work properly if you and your Bridge Officer share the same name.
•Fixed an issue where -maxfps was being ignored and always reset to 60 regardless of user options.
•Players can no longer escape to their bridge if they are engaged in combat in a Deepspace encounter.
•Fixed an issue where battle damage was showing up as white or grey blotches on some ships.
•Added space station ambient audio to Deepspace K7 station.


Missions

•Daily missions now start their cooldown from the time the mission was taken instead of from when the mission was turned in.
•Rank up missions complete now if you get your free ship at any time, not just once you have spoken to the ship vendor. This was causing an issue with some characters getting stuck if they talked to the ship vendor contact with odd dialog choices.
•Players who were teamed where not able to complete missions because other teammates where completing mission dialogs and warp before they had completed turning in their mission. This has been addressed so that all players can progress dialogs at their own pace while teamed.
•Level 43+ players entering the Borg Sectors now need to hail the USS Victory and complete the hand-off mission from Admiral Quinn before they can talk to other remote contacts to access Borg related missions.
•Removed some additional Borg Star Cluster missions that were deemed un-Borg-like.
•Added more missing translations of mission dialog and other localized text updates.
•Addressed an issue where players were getting stuck on the Seeds of Dissent mission by sprinting after enemies and ending up behind forcefields.
•The dialog with the Klingons in the PJem System no longer jumps immediately to "Care to repeat your threat, Captain?"
•Fixed the display text on some KLG cardassian missions.
•Sulu is now a remote contact once the player is level 2.
•Fixed a crate on the Sierra Outpost II station in Romulan space that was spawning inside of another crate.
•The crate on the Iconian ground map is no longer giving out too many items.
•Repeatable Star Cluster missions are now set so that they are only offered when you are neary the cluster if you are above the mission level.
•Moved anomalies on Danteri V and Beytan V that were impossible to scan.
•Under the Cover of Night: Den of Thieves: Commander Teleb was becoming unkillable if hit with an exploit. Teleb is now smarter and will hopefully no longer let himself get put in this situation.
•Fixed an issue where the Diplomat could not be rescued or selected in the Diplomatic Solution mission if the player logged out/disconnected and then re-entered the map.
•In the Minefield mission - all of the crates can now be interacted with.

Powers and Combat

•There is now a Commander version of Dampening Field to correct the issue where some officers were receiving it at LT Commander, and removed LT Commander version from the power store.
•Updated display name for space version of Dampening Field to Starship Dampening Field for clarity.
•Dual Bank Antiproton weapons now do antiproton damage instead of phaser damage.
•Science Team, Security Team, and Engineering team can now be activated while your ship is held.

UI

•Corrected the Klingon version of power trays to use appropriate colored borders.
•Updated the UI to select a reward to make it clearer what you are selecting and help alleviate issues where you might not have received the reward you were expecting.
•Contact headshots now have a border around them to make them stand out better against the background.
•Minor layout tweaks to the disabled weapon trays during the Fed tutorial.
•Made it clear in the UI that the first Ship and Bridge Officer rename is free.
•Made it clearer in the UI that changing your Captain's short name (the one used for character identification purposes) requires a micro-transaction.
•When changing fields, UI will now always be enabled so that you can see how much changes cost even if you can't afford them.
•Unconscious away team members will now stand out better on the team UI.
•Disabled away team control buttons for unconscious bridge officers.
•Added some missing Klingon away team UI designs.
•Added the instance number to the map name above the minimap if it's a static map.
•There are now clearer notifications when you've received a new Officer, or Leveled-Up.
•The Run recovery bar is now hidden if you are being held.
•C-Store - Special Unlocks - "One unlock per character" message was not being display until after the item had been unlocked but is now shown sooner.
•Special unlocked costumes were not showing up properly on the log in screen and should now display correctly.
•The log in message now displays appropriate rank instead of level.
•Players are now prompted if they would like to disable the proxy after 2 failed connection attempts

Today, we bring you the awesome behind the scenes look at Halo Reach, "Once more unto the breach". I'm excited to see more of where Bungie is taking this franchise. I think we all have our fingers crossed that this one will be redemption.

Halo Reach is due out some time later this year, my guess is in the company's Fall line-up. Stay tuned for more!

Thanks to user Kakurenbo over at the official Star Trek Online forums for writing up this chart on XBOX 360 controller keybinds for STO. Make sure you stop by and give him your thanks!

The available buttons on the Xbox Controller are: Joy1 = Start Joy2 = Back Joy3 / Lstick = Left thumb depress Joy4 / Rstick = Right thumb depress Joy5 / LB = Left Bumper Joy6 / RB = Right Bumper Joy7 / Ltrigger = Left Trigger Joy8 / Rtrigger = Right Trigger Joy9 / Ab = A Button Joy10 / Bb = B Button Joy11 / Xb = X Button Joy12 / Yb = Y Button Lstick_(up/down/left/right) Rstick_(up/down/left/right) Joypad_(up/down/left/right) Combinations of buttons are possible, and just require a + sign with no spaces e.g. Joy7+Xb, Joypad_right+Yb. * Not sure about 3-button combos. To see what command you need to bind a specific power, if you go to the Options > Key Binds menu and hover your mouse over a command it will bring up a box indicating the command line you need to enter.   The basic binding command is /bind <command> <condition> which is typed into your chat window. Camera Controls: There are several options here, but the two I find myself trying are Free Camera (left stick controls movement, right stick controls camera), or Follow Target + Tab Selects Offscreen Targets (left stick controls ship, right stick freed up for my shields. Camera automatically pans to face the selected target, so can make maneuvering a bit tricky at times) Tray Bindings: Tray 1 = 1 to - Tray 2 = Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+- Tray 3 = Alt+1 to Alt+- Tray 1 = +TrayExecByTray 0 <button> Tray 2 = +TrayExecByTray 1 <button> Tray 3 = +TrayExecByTray 2 <button> BO powers don't seem to be bound to a keypress by default in Live, so you have to add them to an actionbar and then map that button to a keypress. (Press P to bring up the powers list, and drag the icon into an empty button slot). My bindings for Space are: /bind Yb throttleadjust .25 (increase throttle) /bind Ab throttleadjust -.25 (decrease throttle/ reverse) NOTE: you can change the throttle number for finer control. So .20 or even .10 would be possible. /bind Bb GenSendMessage Throttle_FullImpulse_Button FullThrottle (full impulse) /bind Xb GenSendMessage HUD_Root FireAll (fire all weapons) /bind Joy8+Xb genbuttonclick powerlevel_preset_0 (power preset Attack) /bind Joy8+Yb genbuttonclick powerlevel_preset_1 (power preset Defense) /bind Joy8+Bb genbuttonclick powerlevel_preset_2 (power preset Speed) /bind Joy8+Ab genbuttonclick powerlevel_preset_3 (power preset Aux.) /bind Rstick_up +Power_Exec Reroute_Shields_Forward /bind Rstick_down +Power_Exec Reroute_Shields_Rear /bind Rstick_left +Power_Exec Reroute_Shields_Left /bind Rstick_right +Power_Exec Reroute_Shields_Right /bind Joy7+Xb +TrayExecByTray 2 0(BO power 1) /bind Joy7+Yb +TrayExecByTray 2 1 (BO power 2) /bind Joy7+Bb +TrayExecByTray 2 2 (BO power 3) /bind Joy7+Ab +TrayExecByTray 2 3 (BO power 4) /bind Joypad_up InteractWindow (interact button) Ground commands are very similar, but there aren't as many options Commands you may find useful to add are /bind <key> ++run (one click toggles a full run cycle) /bind <key> ++aim (click toggles aim mode on and off) /bind <key> GenSendMessage Inventory_Root SwitchActiveWeapon (swaps weapons) /bind <key> +roll (tapping Lstick twice will roll you in the appropriate direction, but I like to keep a second single button ready just incase ) Saving your Keybind settings: When you have the bindings the way you like them, make sure to save the config. Use /bind_save_file <filename> and /bind_load_file <filename> to save having to type them in for every character NOTE: you need 2 seperate keybind lists. One for Ground, one Space. All /bind commands are local to that one list, so my /bind Joypad_up InteractWindow has to be in both.

Ok, file this one under "sad panda" folks. It seems the guys over at 2K Games could give to craps less about the FOV issue with Bioshock 2. PC gamers, particularly the 16:10 crowd (like myself), have been having widescreen issues non stop. 2K responded by adding a patch that "Fixed an issue where the resolution would change on its own if entering gameplay in a 16:10 resolution on a native 16:10 monitor", and by shooting down hopes of a FOV fix.

2K employee "Tech Kris" had this to say recently. "Please note the FOV will not change from 75, and we do not plan to change it". Highly dissapointing. Anyhow, for those wanting a workaround, there are a few methods out there. None of the methods are a perfect fix, however, and are to be used at your own risk.

In the meantime, feel free to head on over to the 2K forums and cuss the company out, and show your disgust in our comments.

Naughty Dog recently announced that as of today, MAJOR update patch 1.05 for the Playstation 3 game Uncharted 2 is now officially LIVE! As I glance over the changelog, I an happy with these changes. I can expect some whining from some people though. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts, so sound off in the comments!

Title Update 1.05 includes the following:


Weapon damage and attributes have been rebalanced


On-screen display of medals awarded during a match has been updated


Implemented detection and removal of flagrantly idle players from the active matchmaking player pool


Cash penalty for leaving matches has been adjusted and is now tiered by player level as follows:
Levels 1 – 20 = -10,000


Levels 21 – 40 = -20,000


Levels 41 – 60 = -40,000


Updated player networking protocols to remove all occurrences of “error syncing player data,” Level resets and Ranked playlist Skill Level resets


Added crawling ticker display of leaderboard statistics to the multiplayer menu screen


Updated multiplayer menu screen to include a “Trophy” selection to enable players to display and track progress on the new Trophies included in the Drake’s Fortune Multiplayer Pack


Collision and geometry updates to various multiplayer maps


13 new medals have been added
Defender - Kill a player that is actively shooting one of your teammates


Finish Him! - Get the last kill of the game


First! - Get the first kill of the game


Fly on the Wall - Kill a player who is climbing


No Cigar - Kill the treasure carrier while they are about to score the treasure


None Shall Pass - Get 5 Kills while in the hill during a King of the Hill game


Protectorate - Shoot and kill 5 enemies that were damaging the treasure carrier


Put’em Down - Kill someone in the knockdown state with a pistol weapon


Retaliation - Kill the last player that killed you


That Was Embarrassing - Earn a shutout in plunder


Tip Off - Be the first player to grab the treasure in a plunder match


Tricky - Kill a player with a pistol weapon while hanging


Unlucky - Die 5 times in a row without getting a kill

Sigh Snookie...it seems EVERYONE wants to see you naked. So I bring you this update of sorts. Amid charges of "it's photoshopped" and the like, nakedsnooki.com has released another photo it claims is proof they are real.

Again, I'll let you all be the judge, but don't be surprised if it all turns out fake. Sound off in the comments and let us know what you think!

This week's free movie comes from Ubisoft. We bring you the awesome "Assassin's Creed: Lineage", a short film made to coincide with the AC2 release. It's totally awesome, so check it out!

Today, we bring you the amazing trailer for Neil Marshall's (The Descent, Doomsday) film about the legendary 9th Legion, "Centurion". This movie looks frickin awesome.

One of the best things about being good at COD: MW2 is being able to show off on YouTube. I have seen some cool stuff so far, from the epic knife throw kill to the funny (but obviously staged) stealth kills. Well it looks like the bar has been raised yet again for bragging rights in the video below.

This is an amazing video, and as it appears, a very lucky match for the player. A 6 in 1 kill is just one of the highlights of this awesome vid. If you know of a video of a mora amazing killstreak than this, please let me know.

HAARP, or "The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program", has been the target of conspiracy theorists for some time now. Even History channel did an episode about it. But one of my favorite exposes on the subject came from Jesse "The Body" Ventura, former governer of Minnesota. The basic theory right now is that HAARP was responsible for some pretty significant distaster event. People are buzzing about the earthquakes in China and Haiti.

So what is HAARP? Well watch the video below and see for yourself.

What would a Thundercats film be like? What if it had a huge big name cast? Well,I'm gonna let the trailer speak for itself. Really, it's one of the best fan made trailers I've seen in a while. Check it out!

Pirahna 3D is going to be funny. Not what you expected me to say, right? Well the looks of this trailer give this film a very 1980's cheese feel...and you know what? I like it! Plenty of gimmicky 3D, a great cast, and the return of the Pirahna franchise make this a must see for me this year.

Stay tuned for more on this film as it breaks!

Bioware has unveiled Taris as the next planet in their upcoming MMO "Star Wars: The Old Republic". Taris is described as a "post-apocalyptic swamp, abandoned but not forgotten by the greater galaxy for three centuries". From the looks of it, the planet has a very "Dagobah" like feel to it, even down to the murky look of the atmosphere.

Remember Darth Malak? Well he's the one responsible for the destruction of this world. The republic is attempting to recolonize the planet, but not if the Sith have anything to say about it. However, something resides there that will trouble both the Sith and Republic alike...the mutating rakghoul.



So far, this game is shaping up to be the greatest Star Wars gaming experience ever released. Bioware is really focusing on the atmosphere here, something "Star Wars Galaxies" sorely lacked. Stay tuned for more updates on this game, and be sure to check out Bioware's official website!

Discovery announced that they do in fact plan to have a tribute to Captain Harris of the Cornelia Marie. It's no surprise to me really, because it just seemed like that would happen no matter what. The bigger news though is that Harris will be a part of the coming season of "The Deadliest Catch" this April. They had just finished shooting the season when the tragedy happened.

Variety spoke with executive producer Thom Beers, who said "He'll be a big part of the season and the series, but this is a huge loss to the series. The fate and the future of the Cornelia Marie and crew (are) up in the air. I'm flying up to meet with his sons and figure out what to do going forward."

While the future of the boat and the show may be uncertain t this point, I feel everything will pull together. It is a fantastic show, and I am sure that Harris will still be a part of everyone's lives in spirit.

Following today's scheduled maintenance, the STO servers were hit with some unexpected downtime. Unfortunately for the game and it's players, this has been happening a bit often lately.

First, let's cover the first downtime. "No patch notes for tonight, no new patch. This is all performance and stability maintenance." said GM Destra on the official forums. Not even an hour after it came back up, though, the servers went critical and took a dump...

However, it only took a few minutes to get the servers back up despite all the rampant crying and complaining on the forums. God forbid they had to re-reboot the servers. The poor dev team gets ripped to shreds every time this happens. Of course, ALL MMOS HAVE STABILITY PROBLEMS WHEN THEY FIRST START!

Also what about the fact that WoW's downtimes are 3 times as long usually because of this very same issue? A patch that causes a crash or some sort of bug.

Anyhow, the servers are up, the game is running great, so give the devs a break, uh? And have a HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

UPDATE: Servers dropped again...perhaps it's a sign we should all be with our valentines instead of the computer...

ABC show "FlashForward" has had it's ups and downs...well downs mostly. I love the show, but if I'm being honest, I have to admit it was moving very slow. ABC had once hoped the show would take the ratings place of LOST, but as we all know by now, that isn't likely.

Of course, we all know now that David Goyer left the show. Can the show survive without Goyer's huge following? Well, if Jessika Borsiczky, Lisa Zwerling and Tim Lea have anything to say about it, it just might. Borsiczky had already been a show head before the Goyer incident, but I assume it was her influence that caused Goyer to leave in the first place.

There are reports now that the show will pick up the speed and excitement, but is ABC's faith in the series already waning? As recently reported by Variety, the studio has removed yet another episode from the season.

What will the new show heads bring to the table? We will all find out very soon, as the show begins season 2 on March 18th. Personally, I hope the show sticks around...at least long enough to tie up the story.