Titanfall has turned out to be one of the most popular games new games for the Xbox One and PC, and now the game is also available for the Xbox 360. Respawn will be offering new DLC for the game over time adding new maps and other items. The first of these DLC packs is set to land next month.
The DLC is called Expedition and includes three maps. The maps include Swampland with alien ruins and trees to walk run on. Another of the maps is Runoff, which will feature lots of water. The third map is called War Games, which is set inside of a training simulator.
More details on the DLC will be offered soon. Expedition will be available as part of the $24.99 season pass or alone for $9.99. In addition to the map pack, there are some free DLC packs coming to the game to add in new multiplayer modes and burn cards.
If you love giant robots in life, celebrate your love of giant robots in death with a Gundam tombstone. It will be a lasting monument to your life that stands out and makes others take notice.
This huge Gundam tombstone is on display with more traditional tombstones at a Japanese monument shop in Yasu City, Shiga Prefecture. With this big guy watching over you, your afterlife will be safe. Your dirt nap restful. In the future, maybe we will all have cool tombstones like this one.
It beats having some weeping angels standing over your grave. Plus weeping angels move around a lot, so they wouldn’t even stay by your resting place for long.
I’m taking a break from getting my ass handed to me playing Titanfall, and I just had to post this. This mech is the best possible way to display your smartphone.
It was made by MechWorld, using a variety of random metal bits and bobs, many of which look like the leftover parts from an IKEA cabinet I once put together. When there’s no cellphone docked as its pilot, I wonder if it has an auto-pilot follow mode where it fires RPGs at other phone stands it doesn’t like.
Want it? Drop whatever you’re doing, gather up 97 bucks and call for a dropship to kick you out over Etsy now.
If you find yourself near the Berlin Central Station today, you may have noticed a gigantic robot there before you decided to run for your life and hide in some corner. Nothing to fear. It’s just Betty the Titan, and this is just one stop on a four stop tour around Germany to promote Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall in a big way.
Believe it or not Respawn and EA have been moving this and one other Titanfall prop all around the world. So far Betty has made appearances at Gamescom, GDC, E3, and a couple of other venues. Both Titans were created to represent the true scale of the mech compared to puny humans and they do that well. They would be amazing to see in person.
The Titans were created by Daniel’s Wood Land, based out of Paso Robles, CA. They are made almost completely out of foam, which is carved using 3D carving machines, then painted and sealed. So they aren’t as hard to move around as you would think. One day soon maybe we have have real mechs this size to crush us and kill us.
Hello Kitty is like kryptonite to most guys, but here is a Hello Kitty toy that even we can appreciate. This Hello Kitty Mech looks pretty sweet. And pretty deadly.
This new action figure from Sanrio and Bandai is a collaboration between the companies to celebrate their 40th anniversary. This Hello Kitty mech has a bunch of cool features. It has shooting rocket fists, a miniature Hello Kitty operator inside the head and more. The miniature is only 0.9 inches tall, the figure itself is four inches tall.
This toy will arrive next summer in June 2014 for under $50(USD). It looks very menacing, which I like. Maybe it will beat up all of those Hello Kitty plush toys that people have.
If you have a ton of old truck parts, don’t just throw them in the yard and call it redneck decor, build something special. Something like this awesome mech. This one was built from an old broken down Nissan truck and a ton of other metal scraps.
It stands 12 feet tall and now guards this guy’s house day and night. The whole thing took about a month to complete. Every Nissan should just come out of the factory like this. This guy has an eye for detail. Just look at all of those guns.
I bet his neighbors keep their distance. No one wants to wake this giant.
Have you heard of the robot maker species that doesn’t need a grand research goal, isn’t motivated by government competitions or corporate interests, and doesn’t necessarily care if their efforts result in profit? Japanese blacksmith Kogoro Kurata and British animatronics expert Matt Denton are live specimens with a simple purpose: make awesome robotic machines.
Those with an even mildly passing interest in robotics technology probably heard about Tokyo-based Suidobashi Heavy Industries’ Kuratas robot last year. Those just a bit robo-geekier have probably seen this month’s blast of coverage on Winchester-based Micromagic Systems’ Mantis robot. Here’s a quick rundown to set the stage (also see specs & videos below):
Kuratas – Japan, Public in July, 2012 Team leader Kogoro Kurata is by trade a blacksmith, and with perhaps a few sponsors and some donated labor, his namesake Kuratas robot appears to be an entirely self-funded undertaking. In development for some 3-4 years, Kurata considers his four-legged rolling mech project an artistic and proof-of-concept exercise, and this exercise can be bought and customized: rolling away in your own Kuratas will only require US $1.3 million (bells & whistles also available at $50,000-$100,000 each). Realistically, it’s probably cheaper to pack up and move to Japan than pay for overseas shipping on this one.
Mantis – U.K., Public in April 2013 Matt Denton is a microelectronics and software guy who, when not making giant robot bugs, makes other robotic stuff for the entertainment industry. Denton’s walking hexapod project took off in 2009, and he considers Mantis a demonstration piece and hopefully a source of inspiration for other robot makers. While it’s managed under the umbrella of his company, Micromagic Systems, the project does receive additional outside funding. At the moment, Mantis is not for sale, but you can arrange appearances, demos, and sponsorships. How about, uhhh… birthday parties?
A Win for Imagination The Kuratas robot is last year’s news, but this month’s announcement of the updated Mantis robot provides an opportunity to remember that not all valuable technological development has to be sober or practical or provide immediate, obvious utility. Sure, perhaps Mr. Kurata in Japan and Mr. Denton in the U.K. are the embodiment of oversized boys with cash enough to build man-sized toys – but check your worldview – that is not a bad thing!
If you’ll forgive here a small slice of cheese, it’s nice to know that these grown men haven’t let the grown-up world and the joyless, withered, humorless souls of business and academia emasculate their imaginations. From nearly opposite sides of the earth these independent robot creators have chased their dream of building badass robots because building badass robots is badass. It’s truly admirable.
While the latest from Kurata’s and Denton’s imaginations are wildly dissimilar in design, origin, and intent, there is also a measure of commonality. This isn’t Kurata’s first giant mech rodeo, and Denton’s been at the hexapod game since long before Mantis went into development; they’re both robotics veterans. On top of that, although released 8 months apart, both robots received common threads of media attention. We saw it last year with Kuratas, and this month Mantis is also getting a taste of the “Wow, that’s an interesting but useless robot, so… moving on.” or the “Gee, what an irresponsible and wasteful thing to create.”
Superficial media blips overlook not only the imagination put into these robot masterpieces, but also give little treatment to the super-advanced and original engineering, computer science, and design prowess that defines these machines not as mere sculpture, but actual factual functioning robots.
Mantis and Kuratas: Also a Win for Pure Science No doubt, Kurata and Denton are the drive behind their respective robots, but their forces of passion have also produced two world-class robotics engineering and software development teams. Sure, Kuratas and Mantis may be indulgent, but while these two executive-level robot dorks pursue their geeky dreams, they’re also producing loads of practical knowledge and providing a venue for other developers to experiment.
Kurata and Denton had their self-driven, beholden-to-none ideas and goals, so they made some hypotheses, got their R&D teams together, did countless tests and trials, built models and stuff, rejiggered this and that, and eventually sent out a press release and uploaded their justifiably viral YouTube videos you see down below.
Please forgive another slice of robogeekery cheese, but it’s worth stating that pursuing something because you love it, seeing if you can get it to work just to see if you can get it to work… well, that’s some beautiful, pure science right there. In robot form.
Go Make Your Own You might have noticed this wasn’t much of a showdown. Really, it’s a vote of encouragement to anyone building iron giants, tinkering with a robot hobby kit, or wiring together cardboard boxes, tubing, and PVC pipe.
So, good luck to Kurata and Denton, we love your work and we’re waiting for the next generations. And hey guys, how about fostering a little international cooperation and goodwill amongst robots: mount Kuratas on the Mantis chassis and have a little cultural exchange?
Riding a fully-functional mech is probably extremely high on most people’s list, or at least people that could be considered to be extremely cool, and we might never get to see the day where we can ride a mech, a Japanese company is making it possible for your kids to do so.
Sakakibara-Kikai created the Kidswalker NT, which is a miniature gas-powered exoskeleton which features a chest plate that flips up to protect the rider, moving arms and a “drill” attachment for those days when adventuring into ground is a must. The drill can be activated by twisting on the Kidswalker NT’s throttle-like controls, although we certainly would warn the kid rider to watch where they point that thing as we’re sure it’ll poke more than a few hundred eyes out.
The Kidswalker NT measures in at 5.2 feet and weighs 397lbs and costs a total of $21,000, although if you’re thinking of having it shipped to the U.S., we’re sure its shipping costs would certainly reach in the thousands as well. If you’re an awesome parent with some extra pocket money to spend, we’re sure your child will never forget this gift.
Can’t afford the sweet Kuratas mech? Maybe you can pass on your dream of riding a robot to your kid. Japanese company Sakakibara Kikai recently released a video showing an updated version of its Kid’s Walker machine. It looks a lot more toy-like now, but it’s also more menacing because it has a gigantic drill on its left limb, in case Junior wants to play some Bioshock IRL.
Check out a Newtype lucky kid testing the Kid’s Walker NT in the video below:
I’m not sure if the Kid’s Walker NT is already for sale, but if the price of the previous model is any indication you’ll need tens of thousands of dollars to earn the title of world’s best parent.
One of the cooler toys to rear its head at the 2013 New York Toy Fair was this gigantic new Transformer, which stands a whopping 24-inches-tall.
This bad boy is based on the Titan-class Metroplex, and can transform into two different configurations – a giant wheeled battle platform with helipad, and the Scramble City battle station.
It’s loaded with cool features, including eyes that light up, a projectile launcher, sound and voice effects, and even articulating pupils in its eyes. I also love how his head converts into a turret.
Hasbro expects to launch this gigantic Transformer this Fall as part of the 30 year anniversary of the franchise, and it will retail for$125(USD). So kids, start saving your pennies now.
Funny thing is, while 2-feet-tall is the tallest official Transformers toy released, the actual Metroplex is estimated to be as much as 800-meters-tall (about the same height as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai) – if he actually existed, that is.
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