Productivity Crashes and Burns with Codemasters’ Free Browser Based F1 Racer

Don’t feel like working today? Well, Codemasters, creators of the long running Dirt/Colin McRae and Grid/TOCA driving games, has just the ticket for burning those dull working hours away while you wait to punch the clock.

F1 Online: The Game smuggles itself onto the PC of your choice via an innocuous looking browser window courtesy of the Unity 3D plug in. Once inside you’ll be taking your customized F1 racer out on to the track against up to 24 other work desk warriors in either single, quick races or full championship tournaments. A time trail is also available for each of the game’s 15 tracks from 5 different countries.

F1 Online presents its racing action from a top-down, 3D perspective. The game handles elegantly for a bit of work time fun by using the mouse to control steering and left/right buttons (or W and S keys) for the throttle and brake. Spacebar lays on the boost, while the D key engages the car’s DRS wing. Races run 3 laps and offer a perfect coffee break’s worth of fun. In spite of the game’s simple sounding presentation, F1 Online is still a challenge to drive thanks to the some surprisingly well implemented physics and notoriously tricky tracks.

Off the asphalt you’ll find a world of RPG style carrots to sped your race winnings on in the form of HQ upgrades, new car parts, and achievements. Real-world timers slow down your progress through the tech tree, but the on-track action is never limited or closed off.

Supporting full-screen resolutions, adjustable detail options, and a low entry price of free, F1 Online is an attractive, affordable, and accessible offering from one of the unsung masters of the racing game genre. You can check out F1 Online: The Game.

Sony Online Staffing Up for MMORPG Everquest Next Following Hiring of Original Everquest Producer

Old school MMORPG fans have a good deal to get excited about. In a post on their Facebook page, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) put out the cattle call for for talented individuals looks to:

“BRING EVERQUEST NEXT TO LIFE! If your passion for online worlds and your software engineering skills are second to none, join our brilliant team NOW! Sr. Graphics Engineer, Sr. AI Engineer, Sr. Tools Engineer, Sr. Gameplay Engineer.”

This announcement comes less than a month after news that Brad McQuaid, producer of the original Everquest, had rejoined SOE after leaving the company in 2002 to form Sigil Games and produce the MMORPG Vanguard. Vanguard has also made a home at Sony and is in the process of transitioning to the free-to-play business model.

Information about Everquest Next itself is scarce. An SOE Developer posted to the Everquest II forums that:

“EQ Next is still being built within a black box. The *earliest* we are currently considering that we *might* reveal info is late this year. We're being very particular about what needs to be in the game before revealing it to folks, so until that stuff is ready, we won't be showing anything. (Screens you saw from a couple years ago are completely obsolete now and are not pertinent to the current game at all.)”

As SOE has cozied up to the free-to-play system in a big way, it’s probably safe to say that EQ Next will follow suit. We do know that the game will be built using Sony’s the new Forge Light engine on display in the upcoming MMO shooter Planetside 2.

Image from the EverQuest: The 10th Anniversary book

PSA: It’s Hot! Clean Your Computer!

It’s hot out there! As I write this, Google has the GUO homestead pegged at 93 degrees! You know where it’s even hotter? Inside your dusty ol’ computer. This is a great time to break out your favorite buster of dust and an ice cool can of compressed air and do a little cleaning.

Need some guidance? Lifehacker has a guide to cleaning your peripherals and desktops (spoiler alert! Unplug and stick a vacuum hose on open spots). Laptop owners not afraid of opening the case up can check out Instructable’s gude. Pro tip: Keep a coffee mug handy for all those little screws!

While you’re in the mood, Don’t forget about all your other overheating electronic buddies that could use a sprucing up. Televisions, A/V receivers and especially cable set-top boxes all generate heat and need their vents cleaned out.

World’s First Hello Kitty Themed Spa Opens in Dubai

Proving once again that no place is safe from Sanrio’s marketing might, the world’s first Hello Kitty themed beauty spa opened in Dubai’s Town Centre Jumeirah.

Offering services such as Kitty-cure, Kitty Glam facials, and Toe-Tally Perfect (Really? They passed on the Purrfect pun?) the pampering palace sports “unique formulas created with excellent quality and only for Hello Kitty Beauty Spa.” The Hello Kitty Spa only uses organic products in their children’s services to protect your pretty princesses.

Check it out outline at hellokittybeautyspa.com or click the video below for Dubai in a Frame.com’s opening day walkthrough.

Amazon Launches Free-to-Play Game Hub with Free Goodies and Exclusive Offers

Free-to-play has blossomed from a curious experiment into a viable and popular business model. It’s little wonder that e-commerce giant Amazon is getting in on the action.

The publishers of beloved hardcore JRPG franchises Persona and Shin Megami Tensei, Atlus, is offering free items for connecting through the new Amazon portal and additional items for anyone spending $5 on micro-transaction funny money.Titles include Shin Megami Tensei Imagine, Knights of the Sky, and the newly released 4X space strategy game BattleSpace . Offer is good thru July 26.

F2P juggernaut World of Tanks rumbles into the Amazon webspace with 3 exclusive bundles ranging from $10 to $20 packed with a titular vehicle and both gold and sliver coins.

Pteroglyph’s MOBA Rise of Immortals is giving players who create a new account or link an existing one before October 6th a free character bundle(!) featuring Karapyss and two alternate skins.

Steampunk 3D turn-based strategy game Iron Grip: Marauders is handing out a booster pack with 3 extra units and a bucket of cash just for signing up. This offer lasts until October 7th.

For the more traditional MMO fan, Allods Online is issuing a free starter package valued at $15 containing a purse of “Premium Crystal Chips” (Crunchy!) and an… “Enchanted Saddle”?  Sounds like a fun night for newcomers to Allods! Or, in fact, any gPotato game as they are all giving out $15 starter packs for the low, low price of gratis thru October 6.

There are other special offers to be found, both free and paid, so check out the full list on Amazon.com. Because the only thing better than a free game is a free game that’s giving out free stuff!

Comic: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year - Steam Sale!

Good, Bad, I'm the Boy with the Blog

Apologies for the decrease in posts lately. The GUO homestead has been plagued by all manner of personal, health, and even technical problems. Regular updates will now resume.

Growing Up Otaku did, in fact, have a fail-safe in place for just such emergencies. A small cadre of autonomous robots were to take over regular posting duties should the site fall silent for more than 72 hours. Pieced together with Legos and bits of old Gundam models, these “Blogger Bots™” run on a sophisticated neural net AI fed directly from GUO's blog roll in order for them to emulate my writing style. Our initial test run during my vacation last Christmas proved a rousing success with articles such as Hot Cup of JoCo, Garden Gnome Carnage, and The 12 Geeks of Christmas being generated by the little blighters. Such success was not to be repeated.

Upon checking the system logs from last month while attempting to isolate some BSoD problems on my primary rig, I noticed that the Blogger Bot™ system had not been producing content. On the contrary, the bloody ‘bots had become rampant content consumers rather than the content creators they had been designed as. It seems that they have spent a great deal of time (and money!) downloading episodes of Naruto from iTunes. And not even Shippuden! Classic orange jumpsuit Naruto! “Believe it!” Maybe plugging their brains directly into Growing Up Otaku wasn't such a good idea after all.

So… Blogger Bots™ are going into the backlog of busted crap on the workbench while I think up excuses as to why I'm not fixing them. In the meantime, we look forward to sharing with you again.

Thanks for reading!

Free Portal 2 Map Maker DLC Inbound May 8

When superfan and frequent commenter Brandon asked to write a post about the upcoming Portal 2 Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC, who was I to say “no”? As it just so happens, I am The Lord thy God of this blog, that’s who! What a silly question. But I said “yes” anyway. So, without further ado:

Well folks, the wait is almost over for the release of the official Portal 2 Map Maker.    For the past year Valve has promised this and teased us with a beta version but soon we’ll finally have the real thing. This one is much easier to make maps with than using Hammer. The best part is that all you have to do to make a map is to just drag and drop your ideas to the place you want it to be. They have also added the Steam Community so once you make a map with the new map maker, you can upload it to the Steam Community for others to play around the world.

Now its time to hear from the man who started this all, Cave Johnson. Mr. Johnson?

The Portal 2 Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC will be a free download and is scheduled for release May 8th.

Behind The Blog April 1, 2012

The Great One here, filling in for the usual staff this month. In last month’s Behind The Blog, Mike stated a certain “Dry Spell” affecting him. Maybe a bucket of water would help. Let’s all hope that he’s feeling better soon!

Let’s all take a look at some of the great stuff going on here at GUO in the last month. Stats seem to show only a small drop off of views this month, with Hello Kitty Merch To Die For being the most popular story this month.

Ancient Planets Revise Planet Formation Models | Out Of This World Weekly

Recently, astronomers have found some very old planets. These planets are orbiting a star that is only 376 light years from Earth and shockingly only formed about a billion years after the formation of the universe. At 12.8 billion years old, these 2 Jupiter like planets are some of the oldest planets known to mankind. It was recently thought that planets were only formed after the initial round of stars exploded, sending their newly created heavy elements out into the universe. These heavier elements were thought to be needed to form the core of planets around which the rest of the planet would later form. With the discovery of these ancient planets, the ideas about planet formation are being permanently changed.

While these Jupiter sized planets are likely to be nothing more than large balls of Hydrogen and possibly Helium, the two most abundant elements in the early universe, more information gathered about these early planets will influence ideas about planetary formation forever. It used to be thought that they heavier elements were needed to form a planet but newer models predict that a perturbation from another nearby star could spark planetary formation. It’s also thought that large clumps of light elements could possibly clump together in a significant way after a certain mass is reached, thus allowing for large planet formation around a dense core of light elements.

Finding these planets also increases the likelihood of finding planets around ancient stars, which yet again increases the amount of planetary bodies in our Galaxy and in the Universe. It also allows for the possibility that alien life may have formed billions of years earlier than expected. While our current ideas about life needing heavy elements to conduct the chemistry of life would prevent this, the chance that there were planets formed only a billion years after the big bang does have an impact. We certainly do not have all of the information needed to fully identify the possibilities that these newly discovered planets have to offer but the mere fact that they exist opens up chances for discovery that had not been considered available in the past. Given that these planets may be 8 billion years older than our Sun, we should respect these elderly planets for what they have been through and learn what we can from their extended life.