Monthly Archives: February 2012

Videogames

An Aside | Are you ready to return to BALDUR’S GATE?

By Aidan Moher February 29th, 2012

A new BALDUR'S GATE coming?So a new website has appeared. No big deal, right? Well, this one’s special. You see, it’s for Baldur’s Gate, the near mythical CRPG series developed by Bioware. And all signs point to some exciting news coming down the pipeline.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun reports:

This is, apparently, coming from former BioWare developer Trent Oster, who worked on the original BG, as well as the first Neverwinter Nights. His new company, Beamdog, is a digital distribution platform, brought to wider attention recently via the release of MDK 2 HD, and this, GameBanshee claims, will be the source of new Forgotten Realms chat-n-chopping.

[…]

The rights to the games are owned by Atari, who have spent the last few years re-releasing the series, along with NWN and others, in about 30,000 different packages. It’s clear that the company has been trying to make the best of owning all the BioWare classics for quite a while, and in fact back in 2008 there were rumours they were going to add to these franchises.

The most intriguing part of all is found if you dig into the website’s HTML:

< -- February 28, 2012 -->
< -- Shadowy Figure- Raise Dead : Infinity Engine -->

< -- For years, I clung to the memory of it. Then the memory of the memory. -->

< -- And then... it returned. Better than it was before. -->

< -- Pore over the tapestries and works of art hanging from our walls if you wish, Child of Bhaal... perhaps you will find a clue. But patience, ah... patience would reveal it all. -->

I’m frothing here. But can it possibly live up to the series’ reputation? Many would argue that Baldur’s Gate 2 is the pinnacle of the CRPG genre.

News

An Aside | The DEATH STAR cost *how* much?

By Aidan Moher February 28th, 2012
The Death Star costs HOW much?

Because the folk at Centives.com have too much time on their hands, we now have a vague idea of how much it would cost to produce the Death Star in our current currency/economy. It’s not cheap.

Oh, and the cost of the steel alone? At 2012 prices, about $852,000,000,000,000,000. Or roughly 13,000 times the world’s GDP.*

*Gulp*

And how many Death Stars could we theoretically produce, regardless of cost?

[W]e’ve calculated that from the iron in the earth, you could make just over 2 billion Death Stars.

So, let’s see, $852,000,000,000,000,000 x 2,000,000,000 *pulls out calculator.*

Anyone got $1.69683934 × 1027 sitting around burning a whole in their pocket? If so, I think we could take over the known universe.

Art

Michael Whelan painting cover for A MEMORY OF LIGHT by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

By Aidan Moher February 27th, 2012

The Way of Kings by Brandon SandersonFrom Tor.com:

A while ago we announced that Michael Whelan will be creating the ebook cover art for A Memory of Light, the final volume of The Wheel of Time. I am proud to announce that his artwork will also be used in the print edition.

Everyone at Tor was deeply saddened to hear the news that Darrell K. Sweet had passed away and deciding how to complete the series without him was a challenge that none of us wanted. In choosing Michael Whelan, however, the series gains an artist who has dedicated his four-decade-long career to interpreting fantasy and science fiction literature in a way that is true to the source material while serving as an inspirational centerpiece on it’s own. We are thrilled to have him on board for this series.

From Whelan himself: “I’m flattered to no end to have been asked to work on such a prestigious and popular project. My only regret is that it had to come under such unfortunate circumstances; I never would have accepted had Darrell been here to see the Wheel of Time saga to it’s completion. It will always remain a testament to his career, and I’m humbled to stand in his shadow for the work on the final volume.”

We do not have a cover reveal date yet but rest assured we will reveal it as soon as possible.

Sweet being replaced by my favourite cover artist of all time? Good deal. It’s obviously a bummer that the series won’t match, and I half expected Tor to ‘discover’ a nearly complete painting by Sweet (but actually emulated by another artist based on Sweet’s drafts) to cover the final novel. An unfortunate situation all around, but Whelan’s as good a consolation prize as any Wheel of Time fan could wish for.