One of the holiday season games we're most bullish on is Dragon Age: Origins. While this nerd-tastic tale of dragons and elves and guys wearing chainmail armor isn't for everyone (or even usually our cup of tea), the large chunks of the game we've played have had a mainstream Lord of the Rings epic action movie vibe, rather than rolling a 20-sided die in your parents' basement. Plus, it's one of the only big budget games in recent years developed first for PC gaming, and then ported to living room consoles, rather than the other way around.
We saw two early tastes of the game this morning (one very literally). The first is a browser-based flash game spinoff, called Dragon Age Journeys. Billed as an "EA 2D Production" it's a surprisingly faithful recreation of the full game, from the menus and interfaces to the dialog system -- just recast as cartoonish 2D animation. Combat has a similar feel, with plenty of special attacks and powers to use, but it's more strictly turn-based in the browser version.
Unfortunately, it's not embeddable, but the dragonagejourneys.com Web site does allow you to save your game and even create multiple characters.
Coincidentally, moments after we logged into Dragon Age Journeys, a promotional package for the game hit our desk. The box contained a pile of hay-like material and a small wooden box. Inside the box was a vial of red liquid and a wax-sealed note written in the game's arch-geek style, warning us that "Some master the blood of the darkspawn, some perish."
Our promotional vial of demon blood actually had a handy (and probably legally required) list ingredients attached, which included taurine, caffeine, ginseng, elderberry juice, and, of course, sodium benzoate and FD&C Red #40. We haven't dared touch it...yet.
We're not drinking this stuff...
Update: Our buddy Russ at MTV.com actually drank the stuff, and filmed himself doing it.
Mmmm, delicious frozen steaks...
We're only a couple of weeks into the new year, but we've already run into what will likely be one of the top 10 weird swag boxes we'll see in all of 2009.
The fine folks at EA, in an effort to promote the upcoming skateboarding game Skate 2, sent journalists a Styrofoam freezer box with some frozen Omaha steaks in it, along with a press release and an asset CD (wisely sealed in a Ziploc bag).
The tie-in? Well, the words "skate" and "steak" contain the same letters, and the game apparently has a mode called the Hall of Meat in it, so it's not as random as it seems.
Enjoy these photos of frozen video game meat. ... Read more
I'm a sucker for good show booths. Yesterday I got to sneak a peek at Google's Macworld booth while folks were still setting up, and wasn't sure what to expect in the way of new stuff. Today (to my surprise) the Mountain View-based company had one of the most jam-packed booths despite the lack of any new service offerings. What was the big-ticket item, though? The swag, and to be more specific--the Google swag scavenger hunt.
Google was offering four tiers of swag for expo-goers: Cub Scout-style merit badges, a rubbery grip pad for any portable device, some colored tube socks (not the cool YouTube ones from D5), and a pair of black flip flops with the Google logo on the top.
The setup rallied four stations showcasing Google's various product offerings, including Google Earth and Maps, the recently updated iPhone mobile service, and applications for OS X like Google Desktop, Picasa, and Sketchup, which had been showcased at last year's expo. At each station event-goers had to talk to a Google rep about the service in question to get the hallowed red Google stamp of approval. For each stamp you got on your card, you'd get to graduate to a higher level of swag, or get multiples of the lower tiered items.
Here are some shots from the booth. Let's start with some of the stations:
Google's 'Geo' station was just a showcase of its Maps and Earth products, neither of which received any sort of update today besides the mapping add-ons given to iPhone and iPod Touch users.
(Credit: CNET Networks)... Read more
In way of tech conference swag, the LifeStraw is definitely unique.
Matthew Nordan, the president of nanotechnology firm Lux Research, delivered the morning keynote for his company's annual conference earlier this week where he talked about the disruptive potential of materials sciences.
Nanotech in a straw-shaped water filter
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET Networks)Although he's working with very technical topic, Nordan puts on a good show. There was the nanonickel-covered ping pong ball that he tried unsuccessfully to crush with a hammer.
Then he brought out a bowl of muddy water that he got from a local woodland. This was nasty-looking water with lots of brown things floating in it.
And he drank it.
A portable water filter in a straw.
(Credit: LifeStraw.com)Nordan survived the episode by using a LifeStraw, a thick plastic straw the acts as a portable water filter. It was created by Danish company Vestergaard Frandsen for developing countries, where access to clean water is a serious problem and expected to get worse. The filter costs $3.50 and lasts a year.
CNET News.com included the LifeStraw in a recent photo gallery on low-cost tech for the developing world, but seeing someone actually use it is a whole different experience.
At the end, Nordan told everyone to look under there seats, where taped to the bottom of each was our very own LifeStraw. I don't actually go camping for days at a time, so I can't say I actually need it. Maybe I'll use it to show kids in the neighborhood what tech can do.
In any case, the product is available only for institutional sales. But at some point, it will be sold at retail.
A present! For me! From Salesforce!
(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET Networks)It's a well-known fact among those of us in the tech industry that Salesforce loves to package free chocolate--and sometimes other swag along with its press kits. It's kind of notorious. So when I saw today that Salesforce sent me a package (despite the fact that my beat of social media, pool toys, and The Colbert Report has nothing to do with customer relations management) my immediate reaction was "Hey, chocolate!"
I don't see any chocolate! This is bad!
(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET Networks)So I opened up the package, and to my dismay, I saw some kind of strange white box instead of shiny foil wrappers. CRIPES! A Salesforce missive without chocolate? That's criminal. And disturbing.
... Read more
Most of the swag companies proffer to entice reporters to write about them is predictable and boring--pens, book bags, shirts, etc. You know, things I can buy myself, thank you. But it's not every day I receive swag that's so utterly ridiculous I feel the need to blog about it. (So, good job, Hazmat Media, whoever you are.)
Look, my TiVo swag gets me.
(Credit: CNET Networks/James Martin)Inside a nondescript padded envelope delivered to my desk yesterday was a two-page, single-spaced missive titled, "My TiVo Gets Me." Best of all, it was accompanied by a black, felt headband sporting TiVo antenna ears.
According to the note, "The vast majority of technology lacks essential human warmth and character." But TiVo is different, says the company, because it was created "with a playful, endearingly human personality." And here, "human personality" means the TiVo man icon.
Apparently, many people are enamored of said TiVo guy, to the point where parents have dressed their kids in its likeness for Halloween, and a San Francisco Bay Area couple is having a TiVo-themed wedding complete with cake baked in the shape of the TiVo character, according to the note.
Um, OK. But it seems there's actually a rhyme and reason for the delivery of my funky new accessory: this week, TiVo is launching a new ad campaign called "My TiVo Gets Me." You may have already seen an ad or two.
While it's unclear if this campaign will get more people to buy TiVos, I do know that I'm now better accessorized.
(Credit:
Michael Kanellos/CNET Networks)
Pictured here are just some of the many doodads up for grabs at the RSA Security Conference, taking place in San Francisco this week. Once again, our own National Security Agency remains one of the organizations that showed it knows how to make a splash at the show. This year they gave away these handsome blue-and-white tote bags that look like they came straight from a department store.
(Credit:
Michael Kanellos/CNET Networks)
And, if you waited patiently in line, you could get this commemorative Department of Homeland Security medal. It's actually quite heavy. You can also slip it into your wallet and pretend it's a badge.
Like in past years, the NSA also exhibited one of the best things on the show floor: one of the surviving Enigma machines the Germans used to encode documents during World War II. The captured Enigma machines gave British crackers the toehold they needed to break the codes and determine upcoming raids.
(Credit:
Michael Kanellos/CNET Networks)
The T-shirt doesn't come from the NSA. Instead, it comes from eEye Security. But we liked it anyway.
It's remarkable. RSA used to be a somewhat small conference held in the Masonic Auditorium. Now it takes up two huge halls. You hackers really have made a security boom!
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