Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 enlists Hollywood talent to bring its story to life

This Tuesday Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will be released. Although the series is famous for its multiplayer, developer Treyarch and publisher Activision have put a huge emphasis on the campaign, hiring well-known actors to fill roles, and bringing Hollywood scribe David Goyer on board to write the plot.

The Santa Monica-based Treyarch is once again taking advantage of its Hollywood backyard to bring the new campaign in Call of Duty: Black Ops II to life. The game developer, backed by Activision’s huge coffers, enlisted The Dark Knight Rises scribe David S. Goyer to write the game’s story and dialogue.

Actor James C. Burns (Criminal Minds, Make It or Break It), who returns as Sergeant Frank Woods, said having Goyer on board shows how far the art form of interactive entertainment has come in a relatively short period of time.

“The writing of a narrative for a game is important, and it’s also an avenue for writers like Goyer to really tell a story in a different way, in a much broader way, than in film,” said Burns. “In a game like this you have multiple opportunities to change the story. You can follow storylines to different places. It’s more like doing a mini-series with a lot of characters, but it’s all done in one big swoop. For a writer it’s an opportunity to really stretch the legs and do a very multiple tasked story.”

Activision also brought actor Sam Worthington (Wrath of the Titans, Man on A Ledge) back as Alex Mason and enlisted a huge cast of notable talent to breathe life into the game’s many virtual characters, including Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead, Slither). In a first for the franchise, Goyer, who came on late in the development of the first Black Ops, decided to focus the story on the villain, Raul Menendez.

“The most important thing is to create someone that the player can empathize with,” said Kamar de los Reyes (Read Between the Lines, Salt), who plays Menendez. “You can play a one-dimensional villain, that’s easy. But you want to create someone that the player will at one moment might love and empathize with, and another moment he will hate and not understand or relate to at all. That’s where it becomes really difficult, and fun, fun as the actor.”

In another move towards a Hollywood scale production, Black Ops II features full performance capture. The actors donned the increasingly familiar skintight motion-capture suits and read their dialogue while acting on set at the House of Moves in Los Angeles.

“This is the first game where actors like myself, James Burns and Rich McDonald are actually actors playing the roles,” said de los Reyes. “We are the guys in the video game. In the past, you always had stuntmen playing the roles and doing the motion capture and then having someone come in the voice like Keifer Sutherland or Gary Oldman to do the voice. It’s a lot of fun for the actors. I personally thought it was a hell of a lot more fun doing it all, and I think that’s what sets this game apart from all the others.”

Tony Todd (Chuck, Candy Man), who plays Admiral Tommy Briggs, believes Black Ops II is going to be the most narrative game that gamers have ever encountered.

“Between the ‘80s flashbacks, the future setting, the holograms, and the current situation on the Battleship Barack Obama; it’s just going to be mind-bending,” said Todd in a previous interview for Digital Trends, who had over 50 pages of script to perform in the game.

Getting actors to come back for more Call of Duty isn’t that much of a chore for Treyarch. Everyone involved had nothing but accolades for director Dave Anthony, who helmed the game’s epic story once again.

“I loved working on Black Ops I,” said Burns. “Treyarch is a dream job and Woods is a fun character to play. Come on, I play army for a living for God sakes. And the story progression is phenomenal. I’m a big fan of the game itself, and Black Ops II is such a great, inventive idea of how to take it to the next level. I’m very proud to be part of it.”

With the sequel being set in 2025, the returning characters are a lot older in this game – although the story does jump back in time to the ‘80s for some missions. Burns said Woods has evolved from a “badass weapon” into an “elder oracle” in the new game.

“Woods is the guy that has all this information and his function in the game is to illuminate the player as to the nature of the events, why things happened, and what’s happening,” said Burns. “He’s evolved into this still highly wired, pretty powerful – even though he’s in a wheelchair – character. He has his mental acuity is there. He’s smart. He’s incisive. He’s a smartass. He’s just that old guy in a chair that knows sh*t before you even think that you need to know it. He’s already got you pegged before you walk in the room. He’s evolved from this warrior with a knife to a warrior with an intellect. He’s this rugged badass in a wheelchair.”

The characters in the game are now old enough to have sons that become involved in the plot. Rich McDonald (Heart of Dixie, God Bless America) plays Commander David Mason, son of Alex Mason. He commands an elite team of Navy SEALs, which ends up going after Menendez. The actor loves the futuristic setting, which introduces new weapons, drones and vehicles to the story and gameplay.

“That’s a very intelligent choice to make as far as a time period to pick; not going too far into the future, but just far enough to where they can bring in certain aspects that are being explored right now in the technology fields,” said McDonald. “It’s all too realistic in that time frame. You also have elements from the present that are still going to be applicable in that timeframe, as well.”

Thanks to Goyer, the game’s script challenged actors to cope with major plot twists, as well as serious choices.

“My character is Javier Salazar, who is a military man whose spirit is torn between a way of life that he’s been taught and trained to do, and then something that moves him in a very internal level,” said actor Celestin Cornielle (The Finder, The Mentalist). “He’s forced to choose between two roads. One leads to light, one leads to darkness. To him, it truly leads to an awakening, a new consciousness, and a revelation that we all must be aware of. That’s all I can tell you without killing you.”

The campaign mode in Black Ops II is about much more than killing, although there’s plenty of that. With the success of the Call of Duty game franchises, developers have been able to work with larger budgets. And the growing fan base of gamers includes many Hollywood “names” both in front of, and behind, the camera. Goyer’s involvement has helped assemble a great cast of actors, who in turn deliver performances that Treyarch hopes will connect with gamers.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Twitter Asks Users to #Reset Passwords, Citing Hacking Issues

Twitter Logo (Twitter)

Twitter may have had a record 20 million tweets about the election on Tuesday, but there are some problems in paradise today for the social media service.

Many Twitter users received an email notification from Twitter asking them to reset their passwords after an unknown website or online service compromised the accounts of many users. A few high-profiled accounts, including TechCrunch’s, were affected.

Once users reset their passwords, naturally, they took to the Twitterverse to complain about having to do it.

“We’re committed to keeping Twitter a safe and open community. As part of that commitment, in instances when we believe an account may have been compromised, we reset the password and send an email letting the account owner know this has happened along with information about creating a new password. This is a routine part of our processes to protect our users,” Twitter said in a statement on its blog.

Twitter, however, admitted that it reset more passwords than it should have. “In this case, we unintentionally reset passwords of a larger number of accounts, beyond those that we believed to have been compromised. We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused,” the company said.

Twitter also encouraged users to read about how to protect their accounts and make their passwords secure. To reset your password, Twitter recommends users type in the link into your browser to reset your password. Often, hackers can access your password by tracing the original link from the notification.

Many argue that Twitter, like Google, should implement stronger security, including two-factor authentication, which, if enabled, forces users to type in two passwords.  ”We’ve certainly explored two-factor authentication among other security measures, and we continue to introduce features, such as https, to help users keep their accounts secure,” Twitter told TechCrunch.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Obama tweets his most retweeted tweet ever as news networks call election for Democrats

Barack Obama and his campaign team took to Twitter Tuesday night to thank supporters for turning out to vote, with Obama tweeting his most retweeted tweet ever in the process.

Barack Obama has taken to Twitter to thank his supporters for turning out to vote and returning him (almost certainly) to office for another four years.

At the time of writing, all the major American news networks are calling the presidential election for Obama, with a number of key swing states projected to fall to the Democrats.

At around 11.15pm ET, Obama’s campaign team tweeted, “This happened because of you. Thank you.”

Another came a minute later: “We’re all in this together. That’s how we campaigned, and that’s who we are. Thank you. -bo” The inclusion of “-bo” The inclusion of -bo apparently indicates a personal tweet from Obama himself.

The campaign team then tweeted a photo (below) of Obama hugging wife Michelle, accompanied by the words, “Four more years.” Twitter has just reported that this has already become @BarackObama’s most tweeted retweet ever – at the time of writing this stands at 314,000 – not bad for a tweet posted 40 minutes ago. The account has 22.1 million followers.

However, Mitt Romney’s Twitter account has so far stayed silent, with the last tweet posted around 3pm ET. “With your help, we will turn our country around and get America back on the path to prosperity. Please vote today,” it said.

Earlier in the evening, Twitter announced that Election Day had already become the most tweeted about event in US political history.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Tim Cook tells Apple’s story so far – in numbers

Apple CEO Tim Cook rolled out some big product-related numbers prior to the announcement of new and refreshed hardware at Tuesday's special event in San Jose, California.

An Apple event wouldn’t be an Apple event without its CEO first trotting out some product-related stats.

At the Californian Theatre in San Francisco on Tuesday morning, prior to the unveiling of the iPad Mini, as well as news of updates to other Apple products, Tim Cook took to the stage to let everyone know what everyone already knew – that things are going pretty well for the Cupertino-based tech titan.

Cook kicked off proceedings by confirming that, indeed, the iPhone 5 is the fastest-selling iPhone among its six iterations in its five-year history, selling 5 million units in its first weekend of sales in September.

Last month also saw the introduction of a new iPod Touch and Nano, selling alongside the Shuffle and Classic models. Cook said the company has sold 3 million iPods since its last special event on September 12.

As for iOS 6, also released in September, 200 million mobile devices are now running the new operating system, with Cook describing it as the “fastest upgrade rate in history.”

Apple’s iCloud service, which allows users to store their music and other content on the company’s servers and access it from any of their Apple machines or devices, appears to be garnering interest, with 125 million documents now stored remotely using the service.

Cook said 300 billion messages have been sent using iMessage, or 28,000 per second. “Maybe even more now,” the Apple boss quipped just prior to the unveiling of the iPad Mini.

Game Center, which makes it easy for gamers to share scores and compete against each other, has seen the creation of 160 million accounts, while 70 million images have been shared using the new shared photo streams feature launched with iOS just a month ago.

Turning to the app store, Cook said there are now 700,000 apps on sale in the store, including 275,000 for the iPad. “These [iPad apps] are not stretched out smartphone apps,” Cook was keen to point out, adding, “These are apps that have been custom designed to take advantage of iPad’s big beautiful canvas.” The app store has now seen 35 billion downloads since it opened for business back in 2008, with a total of $6.5 billion paid to developers in that time.

As for iBooks, Cook said over 1.5 million books are now available through its online store, with downloads exceeding the 400 million mark.

Leading up to the launch of the smaller iPad, the Apple boss said that two weeks ago the company sold its 100 millionth iPad – not bad going for a product that’s been on the market less than three years.

According to Apple, iPad currently accounts for 91 percent of web traffic share involving tablets, while 94 percent of companies in the Fortune 500 are now testing or deploying the iPad.

It’s going to be interesting to see what stats the company pulls up about the iPad Mini at its next special event. Are more superlatives on the way?

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Google boss Eric Schmidt launches Nexus 7 tablet in Japan

Google continued with its roll out of its Nexus 7 tablet on Tuesday, launching it in Japan, one of the world's most lucrative markets.

Google boss Eric Schmidt was in Japan on Tuesday to launch the company’s Nexus 7 tablet.

At a special event in Tokyo, Schmidt said the 7-inch device would be available on its website from today and from retail stores starting October 2. The Android-powered tablet is priced at 19,800 yen ($250) for the 16GB version, Reuters said.

Stores in Japan set to stock the device include Edion, K’s Denki, Kojima Denki, Joshin Denki, Bic Camera, Best Denki, and Yodobashi Camera. As an added incentive, buyers will bag 2,000 yen ($26) of credit to spend in the Google Play store.

Schmidt told the gathered audience that adoption of Google’s Android operating system is rising rapidly in the Asian country, with the number of devices powered by the mobile OS almost tripling in the last 12 months. As a result of the take-up, the Japanese Google Play store is now the third most popular in the world in terms of the number of app downloads.

The tablet, now available in the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Australia, was well received by critics when it launched in July. Outside of Australia, Japan is the first country in Asia to start selling the Nexus 7, though earlier this month it became available for pre-order in Taiwan, which is, incidentally, where Asus, the tablet’s manufacturer, is based.

The launch in Japan gives Google a head start over one of its main rivals in the tablet market, Amazon. Its Kindle Fire range of tablets are yet to launch in the country, one of the most lucrative markets in the world.

Whether the Nexus 7 – with its 1.3GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of RAM, a front-facing camera for video chat, and the latest Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS – will have any effect on sales in Japan of the popular iPad remains to be seen. It may also have to contend with another tablet expected to be unveiled next month, the iPad Mini.

[via Reuters, TNW]

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Foxconn factory at center of riot reopens, supply not affected

The Foxconn factory at the center of a large riot on Sunday night reopened on Tuesday, a company spokesperson said, adding that there has been no impact on supply.

The Foxconn factory at the center of a serious disturbance late Sunday involving thousands of rioting workers has reopened.

Company spokesperson Louis Woo told Reuters Tuesday that despite staying shut all through Monday, no impact on product supply is expected. “We have 79,000 people working in Taiyuan campus, and we always have spare inventory,” Woo said.

The trouble, which reportedly involved more than 2,000 workers causing widespread damage throughout the factory campus, was brought to a halt by around 5,000 police. About 40 people were injured, with countless arrests made.

China’s state-run news agency said the brawl started after a fight broke out between two workers in a factory dormitory. However, workers allege the incident erupted after a security guard manhandled an employee at the factory gates.

Foxconn, the world’s biggest component maker, is a major manufacturer for Apple, as well as other giants in the electronics industry. The Taiwan-based company has so far refused to say whether this particular facility, located in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan, is involved in the production of Apple’s new iPhone 5 handset.

In an on-screen interview with the UK’s Channel 4 News program, one former Foxconn worker explained that new devices can cause great stress among workers, saying, “When a factory launches a new product, workers do overtime for long periods to test the production line until they are ready, which really puts pressure on the employees.”

He added, “A new generation of workers has higher demands. They know their rights and they’re more rebellious.”

Foxconn, which employs more than a million people across China, has been under the spotlight for the last few years following reports of employees suffering poor living and working conditions. More recently, the company has apparently been implementing changes in an attempt to improve the situation.

The Fair Labor Association said in August that Foxconn had been making good progress towards its goal of providing better living and working conditions, though if Sunday night’s disturbance can be attributed to a frustrated and beleaguered workforce cracking under the strain, it clearly still has some way to go until its job is complete.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Zuckerberg talk restores investor confidence….a little bit

Following Mark Zuckerberg's Q&A in San Francisco on Tuesday, Facebook shares climbed by $1.50 to $20.93, though this still leaves them some way below the launch price of $38.

When Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, he was well aware of the importance of what was his first interview since Facebook went public back in May.

With shares hitting a low of $17.55 last week – way down from their $38 launch price – the 28-year-old CEO was keen to calm the nerves of investors by clearing up various issues surrounding the social networking site and its plans for the future.

The 30-minute appearance evidently did some good, with stock rising $1.50, or 7.7 percent, to $20.93 in trading on Wednesday. It may not have been the kind of increase he’d been hoping for, but hey, it’s heading in the right direction – for now, at least.

Speaking to the LA Times about Zuckerberg’s performance, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said, ”He said what he needed to: He and Facebook care about shareholders, he is aware of and troubled by the low share price, he appears to believe the stock is undervalued, and appears to understand that he has to communicate Facebook’s strategy more clearly going forward.”

Another analyst, Macquarie Securities’ Ben Schachter, said it was vital for Zuckerberg to make more appearances like this, enabling him to communicate with investors directly. “Better understanding Zuckerberg’s priorities, motivation and general focus is a positive for investors,” Schachter said.

At Disrupt’s Q&A on Tuesday, Zuckerberg said the performance of the company’s stock “has obviously been disappointing” but added that “we do things to build value over the long term.”

Earlier this month, in another attempt to restore investor confidence, Facebook said in an SEC filing that Zuckerberg has no intention of selling any of his more than 500 million Facebook shares for at least the next year.

The announcement came after some of the company’s major investors unloaded a portion of their stock. Early investor Peter Thiel unloaded the majority of his shares – about 20 million of a total of 25 million – in the middle of August, followed a few days later by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, who sold a much smaller amount.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

BBC iPlayer update brings offline viewing to mobile devices

Users of the BBC's iPlayer catch-up and video-on-demand service will be pleased to know that an app update out on Tuesday will make it possible to download shows to mobile devices for viewing offline. Previously, it was only possible to stream TV shows to smartphones and tablets.

The BBC’s iPlayer catch-up and video-on-demand service is being updated to allow users to watch shows offline on their smartphones and tablets, meaning viewers will be able to download programs to watch later on the train, in the car or even on vacation. Before now, viewers using the app could only stream content to their mobile devices.

The new feature is being rolled out in an app update for iOS devices on Tuesday, and is also expected to be introduced soon for Android handsets and tablets.

“This fundamentally changes one of the most annoying restrictions about viewing programmes,“ Daniel Danker, the BBC’s general manager of on-demand programs, told the Guardian, adding that the update will allow even greater freedom when it comes to choosing where and when to watch a TV show.

Danker continued, “With mobile downloads, you can now load up your mobile phone or tablet with hours and hours of BBC programmes, then watch them on the road, on the tube, on a plane, without worrying about having an Internet connection or running up a mobile data bill.”

After downloading a show onto a device, users have 30 days to watch it.

The Guardian report says the move by the BBC comes in the wake of program requests on iPlayer leaping by 142 percent in the last 12 months to 30 million a month, brought on in part by the rapid increase in ownership of smartphones and tablets.

The iPlayer has been a huge hit since it came on the scene in 2007, allowing users to enjoy BBC TV shows and radio programs on mobile devices, PCs and many TV sets.

The service is free to those located in the UK, though last year the BBC launched a paid-for video-on-demand (as opposed to a catch-up) service in 11 countries, including Canada, Australia and a number of European countries.

The global iPlayer is part of a year-long pilot scheme, and with that year just about up, we might soon be hearing news of a US launch for the BBC’s popular service.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Not quite ready – WaveRider hypersonic test flight ends in failure

It was always meant to end up plunging into the Pacific Ocean, but not quite in this fashion. A test flight of the hypersonic WaveRider jet ended in failure Tuesday, before its hypersonic engine even had a chance to fire up.

Dreams of long-haul flights taking a fraction of the current time crashed and burned along with the hypersonic plane itself on Tuesday as a test flight of the WaveRider aircraft ended in failure.

The plan had been to send the unmanned jet on a five-minute flight above the Pacific at speeds of up to 4,500 mph.

However, as the LA Times reported, some 15 seconds into the flight – before the WaveRider’s hypersonic scramjet engine even had a chance to fire up – a problem with one of the aircraft’s control fins was spotted. Before anything could be done, the plane lost control and ended up in the ocean.

The failed test will come as a bitter disappointment to those behind WaveRider’s development, including the US Air Force, Boeing and engine maker Pratt and Whitney. The project is financed by NASA and the Pentagon.

Charlie Brink, program manager for the Air Force Research Laboratory, said in a statement on Wednesday: “It is unfortunate that a problem with this subsystem caused a termination before we could light the scramjet engine. All our data showed we had created the right conditions for engine ignition and we were very hopeful to meet our test objectives.”

Following take-off from Edwards Air Force Base in California’s Mojave Desert, a B-52 aircraft carried WaveRider to a height of 50,000 feet beneath one of its wings. After detaching from the B-52, a booster rocket engine was to have powered the aircraft across the sky, before separating to allow the hypersonic scramjet engine to fire up. But unfortunately it never happened.

It’s not the first time a WaveRider test flight has failed to go to plan – in June last year, the aircraft’s engine was forced to shut down due to an airflow problem.

Engineers working on WaveRider say the aircraft’s technology could be used in next-generation space aircraft, military aircraft, missiles, and passenger jets too – but first they need to make it actually work.

Following Tuesday’s failure, the future of the WaveRider program isn’t clear. What is certain, however, is that the reality of passenger flights between North America and Europe taking an hour seems as far away as ever.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Apple iPad Mini: This is what everyone thinks it will look like

A flood of reports out Tuesday indicate that Apple's so-called iPad Mini will have a thinner bezel than the 9.7-inch iPad, with half its weight.

The question of what Apple’s rumored iPad Mini will look like has apparently been answered. A flood of independent reports published Tuesday indicate that the alleged Apple tablet will have thinner side bezels than any of the first three iPad versions. It will also have a look similar to an iPod touch, with rounded edges.

While this information is still rumor-level — similar reports have been floating around since  the fact that iMore, 9to5Mac, and John Gruber (who runs Daring Fireball) — three of the most reliable sources for Apple leaks — all reported the same details on the same day likely means that Apple PR had a hand in spreading this information. 

As we can see from the mock-up photo above, thinner side bezels means a couple of things. First, it means that the iPad Mini, which will reportedly have a 7.85-inch display, will have a 4:3 aspect ratio, like that of the 9.7-inch iPads. This also means it will have a wider screen than other devices in the “small tablet” category, including that of the Google Nexus 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire.

(Credit: iMore)

Thinner side bezels also mean that, when in portrait mode, holding the iPad Mini will be a bit different from holding a standard iPad — you won’t have as much room to place your thumb without edging onto the touch screen. However, if the smaller bezel rumor is true, this likely means that the iPad Mini will weigh less than half that of the current iPad, which weighs 652 grams. (Gruber estimates that iPad Mini will clock in at around 265 grams, or 75 grams less than the Nexus 7.) This, along with a thinner profile (7.2 mm estimated), means you’ll be able to hold it more like a smartphone than a larger tablet.

At the end of the day, however, price may be all that matters. And here, too, Apple is reportedly doing things right: $200 to $250 for an iPad Mini, the same as the Nexus 7. If the mock-ups we’re seeing are anything close to what Apple will reportedly release in mid-September, then Android tablet makers are going to have to go back to the drawing board once again.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com