Just head over to www.jumpgateevolution.com and use your powers of deduction to determine where to go from there. Hope to see some of you in beta!

Along with all of the healthy player killing comes an entirely new region called Black Rise, which contains 49 new star systems and 40 new stations, many of which are already sworn to a specific faction.

It sounds to me like folks hungry for some ship-on-ship PVP might want to sign up for their umpteenth free trial of EVE Online.

Empyrean Age Features Page [EVE Online]

Wright will be joined at the public event by a variety of scientific speakers, artists and musicians. The developers talk will focus on astrobiology, the history of the Russian space program and Spore. The game will also be on display.

Back when I was at the Palm Beach Post I was actually one of three reporters who helped cover shuttle launches. Watching a shuttle literally push itself away from the Earth and rip through gravity's pull is probably one of the most amazing things I've seen in my life.... and there was swag. No lie, NASA actually had a little kiosk set up at every launch selling shit. I think it was because all of the visiting general and dignitaries always wanted shirts and hats to give to their kids. So funny.

Yuri's Night

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/videogames/39/

NASA is in a position to develop an online game that functions as a persistent, synthetic environment supporting education as a laboratory, a massive visualisation tool, and collaborative workspace while simultaneously drawing users into a challenging, gameplay experience.

Game designer Richard Garriott blogs about his weightless experience with Professor Stephen Hawking:

On Thursday, April 26, the weather was great and we were all excited to go on the day's journey. The event ran even smoother than the rehearsals, and the pilots flew the best parabolas I have experienced in my few trips. The Professor was grinning widely throughout the whole experience. He not only floated weightless but completed several spins while floating free inside the cabin. Professor Hawking did all this while free of his wheelchair for the first time in over forty years!

Professor Hawking himself is also an incredibly engaging and responsive individual. His enthusiasm and enjoyment of the event was always evident. His ability to handle the crush of activity and interest was impressive. He met innumerable people, prepared and gave a variety of presentations, and answered numerous press questions. Between each event, he would be extremely busy preparing his notes for the next presentation in order to present his feelings before and after each phase properly. Extraordinary!

Extraordinary, indeed! Brian Ashcraft

Garriott Blogs Space [Tabula Rasa via Game|Life]

Yesterday famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking joined game developer Richard Garriott for a ride into the edge of space.

The two were among about two dozen who boarded a modified 727 at Cape Canaveral that then performed eight parabolas.

The commercial vomit comet flight gave Hawking a chance to float free of his wheelchair, the first time he has been physically boundless in four decades.

"Six parabolas really was the intended cutoff point," said Richard Garriott, son of former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott.

"But he was having so much fun, we went for two more, and then we thought we'd better quit while we're ahead."

Hawking said he wanted to make the flight for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that he believes Earth is headed for disaster and that the humans species will need a new home in the cosmos.

"I believe that life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically-engineered virus or other dangers," Hawking said.

"I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go into space. I therefore want to encourage public interest in space."

He also said he wanted to prove that people with disabilities can aspire to spaceflight, too, and Diamandis said he did a good job.

Pretty damn cool. I wonder if Garriott was able to talk with Hawking at all during the flight. I'd love to hear what sorts of things they'd shoot the breeze about. Brian Crecente

'Space, here I come' [Florida Times]

Richard Garriott and Stephen Hawking are teaming up, unfortunately, it's not for a game.

No, the developer and the physicist are going to be taking a trip on the vomit comet in a few weeks.

The April 16 zero-gravity flight will be Garriott's fourth (he's an investor in the Zero Gravity Corp.) and Hawking's first.

He said he's taking his first non-grav flight to show "that people need not be limited by physical handicaps, as long as they are not disabled in spirit."

I can't think of a better person to prove it. Brian Crecente

Game Creator, Physicist to Leave Gravity Behind [Austin-American Statesman]

As far as geek gods go, John Carmack is right up there. Not only has he programmed games like DOOM and Quake, but he's also into engineering rockets. Real rockets. So when NASA announced that it will be developing a 3 million dollar MMO for the youth, game site GigaGamez sent Carmack an email. His response?

..the end result will probably be a turkey (a MMOG focusing on formal education... sounds thrilling!)

[I] do support efforts to enhance math/science/engineering education, and I could imagine something interesting coming out of it if they were willing to focus on game-like scenario and actions, rather than trying to be some sort of generic Second Life sort of environment.

Yes, no furries doing it in zero-G. 'Kay, thanks. Still, shouldn't NASA be doing other stuff? Like space stuff? Budget cuts might have push the MMO back, thankfully. Brian Ashcraft

Carmack Gives NASA Advice [GigaGamez via Alice]

Sword of the Stars, by most accounts, was a rather forgettable space strategy game with a gorgeous look to it and some of the most obnoxious, petulant twerps as developers this side of Derek Smart.

Case in point, Martin Cirulis — CEO of Kerberos — has recently gone absolutely bat-shit crazy on Tom Chick, one of the best known writers in video games journalism. Chick dared to give Sword of the Stars a negative review, you see, even though Chick wrote the manual for not-really-a-competitor game Galactic Civilization 2. As a one-time contractor. With no vested financial interest whatsoever in the sales of that title.

In response, Chick has written a long rebuttal, filled with common sense. But it's hardly needed. Chick sums up the kind of company we're dealing with.

Cirulis' insinuations via email, first through his hired PR agency to my editors and then directly from him to me, have been insulting. He's questioned my integrity and made cryptic remarks about resorting to "other venues" to resolve the issue. It reminds me of his other attempts to mute negative opinions. Cirulis bullied Worthplaying into revising a skeptical preview and then running a new preview written by one of his personal friends. After the demo for Sword of the Stars was released, critical posts and threads were routinely removed from Kerberos' message board and people who didn't like the game were banned. Posting as "mecron", Cirulis dismisses complaints with accusations of "GalCiv2 fanboy". Or "manual writer".

Martin, take a lesson from Derek Smart: as a small time developer specializing in unorthodox games set in outer space, you can either be well-loved and listen to criticism... or you can be an insufferable cunt. But not both! [ Florian Eckhardt

What's the deal with...the developer of Sword of the Stars? [Qt3]

Mucking about with monsters!

Shooting lasers!

Honking and bellowing!

These all came out on the 28th over at GameTrailers, and I saw them on Aeropause, who had about as much to say as I do. One thing I will note about these trailers is the sound. The dynamic music is good, if not particularly stand-out, but the sound effects are top-notch. I love the monster croaking. Eliza Gauger

Eve Online is a game I desperately want to love: an MMOG that doesn't involve playing a bearded midget dressed only in his Underoos. I gave the two week trial a shot: I loved the imagination behind the universe and my Shodan-like ship A.I. But after the initial novelty wore off, I realized that most of my time was playing Eve Online was actually spent in another room entirely, reading a book. I guess that's swell for multitaskers, but I like games that actually require me to be around to play them.

Still, a lot of Eve Online fans should be interested by this Firing Squad interview with senior producer Nathan Richardson. One of the subjects touched upon are details about the upcoming expansion for Eve, including a slew of graphics improvements, better management of corporations, more organization tools for combat and better situational awareness. A lot of spreadsheet stuff, in other words. There's also going to be a Direct X 10 Version of Eve, called Eve Vista... you know. Eventually. Florian Eckhardt

EVE Online Interview [Firing Squad]