First Private Orbital Flight Announced for 2011

As an offshoot from the Google Lunar-X Prize the team at Interorbital Systems (IOS) based in California have announced their first private orbital flight to take place in 2011.

Aboard the Neptune 1000 rocketed spacecraft will be Nebojsa Stanojevic and Miroslav Ambrus-Kis. a Serbian and Croatian respectively. Both are part of the Synergy Moon Team as part of the Google ‘moon race’ prize.

To guarantee the safety of the two man pod it will be launched onto a decaying orbit.  This will ensure that once the 12 hour trip comprising of 8 orbits is complete it will return to Earth close to it’s launch point in the Kingdom of Tonga. Using the same principle as the original Apollo mission it will parachute from low orbit into the South Pacific, although it is not stated whether this will be the standard method once commercial flights begin in 2012.

Prices for these flights will start at $800,000.

The emergence of this company should inject some much needed competitive spirit into SpaceX who until now looked to be the only players in the Google Competition.

~Mike

David Guetta – One Love. Album Review

Hot on the back of the publicity and success of the Kelly Rowland collaboration on the single ‘When Love Takes Over’ we get the new Guetta album, One Love.

So let’s cut to the chase, and delve into which other tracks on the album are the equal or better of the current single.

Firstly let’s get it out of the way that there are a few album tracks on here, and from collaborations with artists you wouldn’t have expected such as Akon. They are great tracks, don’t get me wrong, but nevertheless they are never going to be recognized as stand out singles in the course of time.

Okay, now to the good stuff. The best track on the album by far (according to Mike) is the last track of the fifteen, a collaboration with Makeba, who is ironically one of the least well known artists.

If We Ever.

Other great tracks come from, not surprisingly Kelly Rowland although only one of these makes it into my top pick.

It’s The Way You Love Me.

The other Rowland track that also features Nelly I think will be easily forgotten.

Another great track, a collaboration with Novel is Missing You. A very disco track that will be remixed for years I’ll wager.

A collaboration with Chris Willis also produced a good track, Sound of letting Go.

Finally the Black Eyed Peas remix of I Gotta Feeling is easy on the ears, and also a collaboration with Dirty South produced a better than average track.

All in all it is a very commercial record, and one that will be remembered in dance culture for a long time. In a culture where each remix album seems to rehash the same old tired tracks its refreshing to see new talent emerge with inspiration and contribution from many of the better current artists.

~Mike

Aion Open Beta Ends

So what is the conclusion as Aion Open Beta period comes to a close?

Great game, no doubt about it. There’s been a gap in the market, nai in everyone’s hearts for a new MMo to come replace World of Warcraft, that although being hugely playable and a technological marvel was actually pretty thin on RPG. The PVP and PVE endgame more than made up for its shortcomings however, but there was still that gap needing to be filled.

Warhammer gave it a really good shot and although it was a beautiful game with an incredible spirit it still lacked that longevity needed to take up the time required to master an MMO-RPG.

Aion has the potential to do the job, there I’ve said it.

The PVE content, set in a totally alien environment is completely unique and coupled with the perfectly recoded CryEngine it runs smooth as %^&* from a ducks ass as it were.

PVP consists of either duelling with those of the same race or making your way to The Abyss zone, that looks to have taken elements from many other MMos such as the RVR taking of forts of Warhammer and plain flat out skirmishes of Warcraft. The videos of this look amazing so far although I cant vouch for it as I only took my Mage to lvl 11.

Other points of merit in the game… Without doubt, first thing to mind is the city. Sanctuary City is the best city concept I’ve seen in an MMO. Its suspended within the clouds from the highest summit of a worryingly thin mountain peak. The scifi concept art is amazing and should provide for hours of eye candy in my leisure time over the next year.

It seems that the elected server for English folks will be Spatalos, and although I hate the name I will join ther since I dont want a repeat of the Warcraft incident where me and my friends were stuck on an Italian server for the majority of the duration. ITA? anyone ? grrr

Thumbs up so far for Aion. Stay tuned