rome

Halo, Titanfall lead Xbox One games at E3

Microsoft has announced the lineup of games for its upcoming Xbox One console at its 2013 E3 press conference in Los Angeles with highlights including Ryse: Son of Rome and the god-sim Project Spark.

The first game announced at Microsoft's E3 press conference in Los Angeles was Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, featuring Kiefer Sutherland as the voice of Snake.

The trailer opened with a scene on horseback reminiscent of Red Dead Redemption and detailed gameplay elements such as "deeper stealth action" and "tactical espionage."

The next exclusive Xbox One game to be … Read more

Rome's Colosseum is pulling a Pisa

First there was the Tower of Pisa, and now this. The ancient Colosseum of Rome, one of the most recognizable structures on the planet, is leaning. Italian authorities are investigating what steps to take in preserving the monument after it was discovered that the Roman structure is 40cm (15.7 inches) lower on its north side.

The slant was first noticed last year. La Sapienza University and the environmental geology institute IGAG have been asked by the Colosseum's preservation society to investigate the problem, according to Reuters.

Dr. Giorgio Monti, from La Sapienza's construction technology department, believes the … Read more

Build an empire with Cradle of Rome

Cradle of Rome combines the popular tile-matching puzzle format with an empire-building element; the Roman Empire, of course. It's similar to plenty of other puzzle games we've seen, but the Roman twist gives this puzzle game a fun extra challenge.

To play Cradle of Rome, you must first download the Free Ride Games manager, which will then download the game--along with plenty of others, if you're not paying attention. The price of admission is steep for this free game; advertising appears both in the form of videos that delay and interrupt your game and as Flash-based banner … Read more

Fiance gets dumped for naughty Facebook picture

Relationships are difficult. They have their ups. They have their downs. And they have their outs.

As was recently discovered by Antonio M., that rare Italian with a romantic streak. Antonio has a Facebook page. He is proud of that page. So much so that he posted a picture of himself in partying mode.

Atlas liked to party with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Antonio's partying mode, on the other hand, seems to include staring at a camera while two naked breasts are placed on his head.

Now it isn't for me to judge how … Read more

Google Earth's ancient Roman holiday

Google Earth is extending its satellite perspective to paint a picture of what the ancient city of Rome looked like nearly two millennia ago.

While satellites weren't around to give us a bird's eye view of the city in 320 A.D., Google's "Ancient Rome 3-D" offers a 3D simulation of the ancient city at the height of its power. The new layer for the tool allows virtual time-traveling tourists to fly around the city and zoom in to explore ancient structures as they likely looked at the time, including the Colosseum, the Forum, and … Read more

Napster MP3 store: great selection, bad interface

Napster launched its Web-based MP3 download store yesterday, and it seems to be the latest digital music whipping boy, with negative reviews in several places.

Let me start with the positives. Napster claims the store has 6 million tracks, which is 50% larger than any other MP3 store out there. They do have a single download of "The Promise" by When in Rome, an obscure 1980s single my wife loves but that iTunes will only let you buy as part of the full Napoleon Dynamite soundtrack. I'm sorry, Apple, but I won't pay more than $0.… Read more

Proprietary software and the fall of Rome

If you've never read Edward Gibbon's classic, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, you really should. I used Gibbon heavily in my Masters thesis, The Rise and Fall of American Hegemony, and find parallels between Gibbon and modern society, including the world of software.

As Gibbon explains, it's not weakness that crippled Rome, but its strength, just as Clayton Christensen wrote many years later about how the world's most successful companies fail:

"The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the cause of the destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest;… Read more

Ancient Rome rebuilt, virtually

Not only was Rome not built in a day, but a digital model took 10 years to construct. A team of archaeologists, architects and computer specialists from Italy, the United States, Britain and Germany has just unveiled a sprawling 3D digital simulation of the ancient city as it appeared at the height of its development as the capital of the Roman Empire.

They are calling it the largest, most comprehensive simulation of a historic city ever created.

"Rome Reborn 1.0," based at the University of Virginia, shows almost the entire city within the 13-mile-long Aurelian Walls in … Read more