Over the past year, more and more publishers have signed on to that whole “online pass” deal in an attempt to make some extra cash off of used game sales. This traditionally works by, say, locking out gamers who bought the game used from multiplayer.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was recently announced to also require an online pass for used game purchasers, but how they’re approaching it is different. The game doesn’t have an online mode, so EA instead chose to lock out used game purchasers from an entire quest line.

It’s not the first time that an online pass locked used game purchasers out of singleplayer content–RAGE did something similar, albeit far less severe–but this one stands out as being a bit too harsh. In a post on the game’s official website, community manager Muse attempted to justify the decision, saying:

“For what it’s worth, the House of Valor content was not in the finished game/disc at one point, then removed. It isn’t there and we’re locking you out of it. The House of Valor was created as stand-alone content, and was always intended to be the first DLC. Instead of holding onto it and charging for it later, we opted to give it to everyone who purchases the game new, for free, on launch day. We hope that helps clarify that point, at least.”

What do you think? Does Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning‘s online pass go too far?

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning locks out singleplayer content for used copies is a post from: The Inquisitr

Long-term trolling is the best kind of trolling, and this is dedication.

Epic Cat Facts Troll is a post from: The Inquisitr

A fire at The Christ Love center for drug and alcohol addiction killed at least 26 people this morning in Peru.

The Associated Press reports that the Christ Love center, which is located in one of the poorer districts in Lima, is overcrowded and unlicensed. Health Minister Alberto Tejada said:

“This rehabilitation center wasn’t authorized. It was a house that they had taken over… for patients with addictions and they had the habit of leaving people locked up with no medical supervision.”

Gianfranco Huerta, a patient, told a local news station:

“The doors were locked, there was no way to get out.”

All of the windows at the center were barred up and many of the patients were locked in small rooms. When the fire started the patients had no way to escape. Fire fighters punched holes through the walls to try to rescue the residents but at least 26 people died in the fire.

Peru’s fire chief, Antonio Zavala, said:

“We’ve had to use electric saws to cut through the metal bars of the doors to be able to work.”

The Associated Press reports that firefighters also had trouble rescuing patients because the department is drastically underfunded and all members of the fire department are volunteers.

The Canadian Press reports that firefighters are not sure how many people were in the building at the time of the fire. The owner of the building and several members of the staff reportedly fled the scene.

Fire Kills 26 at Drug Rehab Center in Peru is a post from: The Inquisitr

I bet their graffiti is totally more reasonable and clever than ours.

Meanwhile, in England is a post from: The Inquisitr

You may have heard parallels between Barack Obama and Saul Alinksy, and Bill Maher was kind enough to explain to perplexed liberals who Saul Alinsky is and why he is so scary.

You remember that bill he championed… the “Grab a Corona and Call in Sick Act.”

[Lower quality, slightly longer clip.]

Bill Maher Answers the Question “Who Is Saul Alinsky?” [Video, NSFW] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Although former power couple Jennifer Lopez and husband Marc Anthony are in the middle of a split, the pair have a reason besides their twins Max and Emme to spend a bit of time together.

Before their separation, the pair decided to work on a new, Idol-like concept- a show called Q'Viva that is all about Latin culture. Then came their separation, and the ensuing tabloid frenzy suggesting that Anthony was involved with Jada Pinkett Smith, and the pics of Lopez and backup dancer Casper Smart, and Q'Viva kind of got buried in the pre-split news about the couple.

But while many couples in the midst of a divorce would be reticent to sit down together and give and interview, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony spoke to Entertainment Weekly about their baby- the TV one, Q’Viva. (Which kind of sounds like Qdoba, which makes me want to go to Chipotle.) Q’Viva premieres tonight on Univision, a Spanish language channel, and the pair had a bit to tell the magazine about what viewers can expect.

On the differences between Q’Viva and Idol, Lopez says:

I don't know that there is another show like this. There's no winner. This is about creating a live visual experience about Latin culture, rhythm, dance — the likes of which have never been seen. So there is no show to compare it to. We're casting a show, and you're on the journey with us.

Anthony adds:

It's a callback — the only thing is that we're rolling cameras on it. This is very, very serious business.

Lopez also says Q’Viva is a bit more hands on than Idol:

We went to these countries and we ate the food, walked the streets, and came upon people we didn't know we were going to meet. Some people we knew we were going to meet that we saw on video. But some people ran up to the car and were like, "Can I audition?" And I was like, "Okay." And they were amazing.

Anthony described a competition with some moments that were a bit more ‘real’ than his experiences with aspiring talent in the US:

I met this extraordinary dance troupe from Mexico City that did a little bit of everything, they were street performers, and there was one who I kept wondering, Why isn't he performing? And they said, "He can't because he doesn't know who he is." He had no identity, no name. They left him in a park when he was young. I was not ready for that. But the world needs to know about this talent.

Do you plan to tune in to watch Jennifer Lopez’s and Marc Anthony’s Q’Viva?

Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony Reunite to Promote Q'Viva is a post from: The Inquisitr

Great idea, but it obviously only works on this particular car.

Best Plate and Make Combo Ever [Legend of Zelda] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Elaine’s boss on Mr. Pitt has passed away. Ian Abercrombie, who cut candy bars with a knife and fork on Seinfeld, passed away earlier this week at the age of 77.

Abercrombie was most famous for his role as Mr. Pitt on Seinfeld but the actor stepped into plenty of roles during his 45-year career.

Abercrombie started his career in the 1960s and has appeared on shows like Columbo, The Quest, The Six Million Dollar Man, Battlestar Galactica, Happy Days, Threes Company, Who’s The Boss?, Murder She Wrote, Alf, Murphy Brown, Seinfeld, and most recently, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Wizards of Waverly Place. 

He also had parts in movies like Rango, The Lost World: Jurrasic Park, and Army of Darkness.

But to many, Ian Abercrombie will always be remembered as Mr. Pitt from Seinfeld.

‘Seinfeld’ Actor Ian Abercrombie Dies at 77 is a post from: The Inquisitr

It was one small step, one giant leap for Lego kind. Two teens from Toronto successfully sent a Lego Man into space using a homemade weather balloon.

Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad sent their Lego passenger and four cameras 78,000 feet above the earth which is about three times the altitude of a commercial airplane.

The Star reports that the two teen’s space venture wasn’t part of a school project. They just wanted to see if they could do it.

Dr. Michael Reid, a University of Toronto astrophysics professor, said:

"It shows a tremendous degree of resourcefulness. For two 17-year-olds to accomplish this on their own is pretty impressive."

Here’s the video of Lego Man’s journey into space.

Ho and Muhammad said that they were inspired by a similar video posted by a group of MIT students. It took the duo nearly four months to research and build the contraption. They bought a professional weather balloon, $160 worth of helium from a party store, a special wide angle camera, and a GPS system to help them locate their project once it fell back to earth.

They also sewed their own parachute.

Ho said:

“People would walk into the house and see us building this fantastical thing with a parachute from scratch, and they would be like, 'What are you doing?’ We'd be like, 'We're sending cameras to space.' They'd be like, 'Oh, okayyyyy….' By no means are we, like, seamstresses. We broke like, what, four needles? It was ridiculous."

Are you impressed with Lego Man’s space journey?

Lego Man Soars Into Space [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Attention: are you a corporate shill? Do you spend many of your billable hours in overlong meetings with an intellectually trudging project leader? Are you watching the clock, screening co-workers calls and marking your boss’s e-mails as spam? Well, turns out you may feel that way because the very premise of “meetings” includes an ensemble cast of your company’s cubicle-piloting can-doers and scientific evidence  that the very meeting you’re dreading is also sucking down your IQ points like a strawberry milkshake.

A new study has found that group interactions actually lower your intelligence (read: “make you dumber” if you just got out of one).

“You may joke about how committee meetings make you feel brain dead, but our findings suggest that they may make you act brain dead as well,” said Read Montague, director of the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory and the Computational Psychiatry Unit at the institute, who led the study.

The study: Scientists in Virginia matched groups according to IQ, ranked the performance of the group members on cognitive tasks against the each other, and then revealed the rankings. When group members were told how others had performed, “we saw dramatic drops in the ability of some study subjects to solve problems,” explains the lead researcher. “The social feedback had a significant effect.”The scientists used an MRI to read the results.

What it means: You feel pressure in a group, and tend to think-without-thinking that you’re not as smart as the other members in your pack. This assumption has something of a psycho-somatic effect on your brain, actually making you less able to solve problems.

Sorry ladies! Likely due to your increased ability over men to be empathic, you’re actually much more vulnerable to this effect. The lead author added: “Our study highlights the unexpected and dramatic consequences even subtle social signals in group settings may have on individual cognitive functioning.”

Also, we shouldn’t just give meetings all the criticism. This can apply to any social function: Pictionary with friends, a dinner party, or a night at the pub with your roommates (though other factors are probably involved in that one).

Because I care, you have my permission to print this off and use it as an excuse to get out of that meeting you’re dreading this week.

You’re Right! Meetings Actually Do Make You Stupider is a post from: The Inquisitr

North Koreans are in desperate need of warm socks and thanks to a few South Korean activists they could soon receive a shipment of socks delivered via balloon.

A group of activists in South Korea released huge gas-filled balloons filled tied to boxes of socks on Saturday, hoping that impoverished North Korean citizens will find them.

The AFP reports that socks are extremely valuable, and extremely rare, in North Korea.

The activists sent about 1000 pairs of socks in large plastic balloons despite threats from Pyongyang. South Koreans have sent leaflets denouncing the North Korean government in the past, but Sunny Kim, a spokeswoman for North Korea Peace, said that the socks were sent without any political messages. Kim said:

“We’re not interested in sending political messages or sparking any troubles there. All we want is that people in the North wear warm socks over their frozen feet. Warm socks are so rare and they can easily be traded for cash in the North. One pair of socks fetches about 22 pounds (10 kilos) of corn, which is enough to sustain a person for a month.”

Here’s a video report from a balloon launch last month that saw thousands of leaflets cross the border into North Korea.

MSNBC reports that several of the South Korean activists are defectors from the North. Earlier this month the activists sent food via balloon. North Korea has threatened to open fire on activists trying to send supplies to the North.

South Korea Sends Sock Balloons to North Korea is a post from: The Inquisitr

Gonic School Principal Gwen Rhodes rescued an autistic student from the Cocheco River Wednesday, jilting words like “hero” and insisting that her actions were just part of the job; no different from what educators do each day.

Around 11 a.m. Wednesday morning, EMS crews were called to the school for a report of a student running into the woods. The autistic student crossed a part of the river onto a peninsula, and eventually slipped. Rhodes and another educator had been following the student, and Rhodes responded when she heard the child scream. Recounting the scene, Rhodes said:

"He looked at me and he said 'help.' I said his name and said 'don't move' and just then the ice cracked and at that point he's going into the water, so I just reacted to get closer to him."

The water was freezing, but the depth allowed the two to stand. Rhodes swam with the student upstream, to a tree, and slowly began to push the student out of the water and up onto the bank.

"I gave him directions step by step as we carefully worked our way up," Rhodes said. "He did everything I asked him to do."

They left the woods and were met by first responders. Both were taken to Frisbie Memorial Hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries, primarily exposure. Instead of accepting the lauds and praise, Rhodes directed attention paid toward her heroism to education and educators as a whole instead.

"I think what I want people to know is I did what I did because I was in a circumstance where I had to think quickly," Rhodes said. "Which is what an educator does every day."

This is Rhodes’ fourth year as a principal, and she was a teacher herself for many years before that. She has never had to quell a situation like this in her career, but she doesn’t see it as very different from the daily grind.

"We are always making decisions and they're all tough. This one just happens to be dramatic," Rhodes said. "We try to put plans in place so these kind of incidents don't happen, but we can't predict every possible thing. Sometimes the unexpected happens."

Take heart, dear reader. Here’s a piece of good news for the day.

It’s Part of the Job: Heroic Principal Saves Autistic Boy From Icy River is a post from: The Inquisitr

Al Green just had his biggest week since SoundScan began tracking digital sales in 2003. After President Obama sang a little “Let’s Stay Together,” sales of the song  jumped up nearly 500%.

Billboard reports that there were 16,000 downloads of “Let’s Stay Together” this week, which was a 490% increase.

Obama sang the first line of “Let’s Stay Together” at a fundraising event on January 19th at the Apollo.

Reverand Al Sharpton noticed the sales boost. Sharpton said that the increase shows that President Obama is still pretty popular. Sharpton said:

"That video went viral and had everyone talking. Since that performance, sales for Al Green's songs shot up 490 percent. That's the best sales week for that song since they began tracking downloads nine years ago. The President sings, boosts classic songs and helps the economy. Hey Republicans, you sure you are ready to face him in the election?"

Here’s the video of Obama singing “Let’s Stay Together.”

Here’s a video of Al Green performing the song.

Do you wish Obama gave a little more than a taste of his vocal abilities?

Al Green Sales Skyrocket After President Obama’s Performance [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

If Tiger Woods wins the Abu Dhabi he could find himself back in the top 10. The former number one golfer just shot a third round score of 66 and is currently tied in the lead with Robert Rock at 11 under 205.

Yahoo reports that Rock also shot a 66 during the third round to keep up with Woods.

Woods said after the third round:

“I didn’t do a lot of things right, but I didn’t do a lot of things wrong today. It was just very consistent. I made a couple of putts here and there, but it was just a very consistent round of golf.”

Lawrie, Molinari, McIlroy, and Hanson are all two strokes behind the leaders.

 According to ESPN, this is the first time that Woods has held, or has been tied for the lead going into the final round, since the Australian Masters in 2009. Woods won that event but he knows that anything could happen during tomorrow’s final round. Wood said:

“There’s too many guys up there right now. There’s a ton of guys with a chance to win. We have not separated ourselves from the field. I need to go out there and shoot a solid round of golf, and I can’t go out there and shoot even par and expect to win. I’ve got to go out there and go get it.”

Rock said that he’s excited about competing for the win, but he’s also excited about the chance to play with Tiger Woods. Rock said:

That’s an opportunity not to be missed. I bogeyed the 16th hole and thought it might have cost me. So two birdies to finish put me back in there. … I just want to experience it. How many chances I’ll get to do that, it’s not clear.”

Do you think Tiger Woods will win the Abu Dhabi?

Tiger Woods, Robert Rock, Lead at Abu Dhabi is a post from: The Inquisitr

Liam Neeson battles wolves in the new film “The Grey” and says that while the one he worked with were fake, they still seemed “pretty scary.

In the film, which hit theaters on Friday, January 27, Neeson plays a member of an oil-drilling team that gets into a plane crash somewhere near the Arctic Circle during their journey home.

Many die in the incident, and the remaining members soon realize that no one is coming for them. Unless you count the wolves.

“It was quite intense because these wolves were made larger than they are in real life and especially the alpha wolf was made to be quite mythological, quite sinister and I have to fight a couple of them,” the 59-year-old actor told OnTheRedCarpet in a recent interview. “It was pretty intense. Pretty scary, too, actually. Even though there were humans behind them, manipulating them, but they were still very real. There was no CGI there.”

Despite having to fight off the wolves in the film, Liam went on to say his character, Ottoway, maintained a “respect” for the creatures.

“He knows how they operate, he knows how they behave as a pact and he … most certainly has an empathy with them,” he said. “I also think he has a very, very guilty conscience, too, because he’s had to kill them to protect the workers in this oil refinery, you know, which I think weighs very, very heavily on him. But there’s a respect there, most certainly.”

“I think there’s kind of a mythological, almost a Greek tragedy thing is about to unfold where … maybe these wolves are about to get their revenge on their brothers and sisters that I’ve killed,” Neeson told OnTheRedCarpet.com. “And I know that and they know that and they know that I know that. Maybe.”

In addition to his battles with wolves, Neeson also talked about another enemy he encountered while making ‘The Grey’ – the cold.

“The first week was minus 40 [degrees], and I'm not exaggerating,” Neeson told Access Atlanta in a phone interview. “I remember my first day of shooting, my character is sitting in the snow after the plane wreck and I thought, 'There is no way we're going to be able to film this movie.’ It was so cold, equipment was freezing.”

Although weather conditions weren’t ideal, Neeson admitted they were necessary to elicit the required emotions for audiences to buy what these men were going through.

"When something's real, you know it and you experience it as real," says Neeson. "There's no CGI for all that weather.”

Check out a trailer for “The Grey,” starring Liam Neeson below:

Source: OTRC

Liam Neeson Talks “Fighting Wolves” in ‘The Grey’ is a post from: The Inquisitr

Victoria Azarenka won out against Maria Sharapova at the Australian Open finals today, capturing the Grand Slam title and cementing herself as the number one ranked female tennis player in the world.

To say that Azarenka simply “won” her match against the three-time Grand Slam title winner would be the understatement of the year, however; Azarenka absolutely dominated her opponent, beating Sharapova in just under 1 hour and 30 minutes 6-3, 6-0.

“It’s a dream come true,” Azarenka said of her big win. “I have been dreaming and working so hard to win the Grand Slam, and being No. 1 is pretty good bonus. Just the perfect ending and the perfect position to be in.”

The match initially looked like it would be in Sharapova’s favor; she won the first two matches, but Azarenka maintained her composure and ramped up her aggression, ultimately steamrolling straight over Sharapova.

“As in any sport you have your good days, you have your tough days and you have your days where things don’t work out,” Sharapova said to the crowd after the match. “Today, Victoria was better on so many levels and played too good.”

[Image credit: Reuters]

Victoria Azarenka dominates Maria Sharapova to win Australian Open is a post from: The Inquisitr

Recently, the New York Times ran an article that detailed the harsh conditions workers are facing at a factory that supplies parts for Apple products, including the iPhone.

The report highlighted a number of disturbing instances of workers being consistently overworked. Workers are faced with constant and excessive overtime, and in some cases this lasted for a week straight. Workers were forced to stand so long that their legs would swell, and all of the factory’s employees lived in overly crowded dorms–and that’s not even the half of it.

Since the New York Times ran its report, Apple has been coming under fire from some, with calls for the company to promptly address the poor working conditions. Apple has yet to make an official public statement, but 9to5mac picked up an email that Apple CEO Tim Cook sent out to Apple employees, in which Cook says that the company will “dig deeper”.

Here are a few key points that Cook touched on in the email:

"Every year we inspect more factories, raising the bar for our partners and going deeper into the supply chain. As we reported earlier this month, we've made a great deal of progress and improved conditions for hundreds of thousands of workers. We know of no one in our industry doing as much as we are, in as many places, touching as many people."

"We will continue to dig deeper, and we will undoubtedly find more issues. What we will not do — and never have done — is stand still or turn a blind eye to problems in our supply chain. On this you have my word. You can follow our progress at apple.com/supplierresponsibility."

You can check out Tim Cook’s email in full at this link.

Apple CEO responds to claims of poor working conditions at iPhone factory is a post from: The Inquisitr

Michael Robinson was in Hawaii for the Pro Bowl, but his mind was elsewhere. He had been invited after his impressive performance as a Seattle Seahawks fullback and was in the process of practicing for the big game, but he made the decision to book an 11-hour flight from Hawaii to the mainland to attend a memorial service for former Penn State coach Joe Paterno.

Robinson was once a quarterback for Penn State, having been a large part of the team’s victory in a Big Ten championship back in 2005. When Robinson took the stage at Paterno’s memorial service, he said that the legendary Penn State coach one told him that, one day, he would be in the Pro Bowl as either a running back or a fullback. Sure enough, he is.

“And as God is my witness,” Robinson said at the memorial service, “three hours ago I got off a plane from Hawaii – because I’ve been voted to my first Pro Bowl.”

In the speech, Robinson said that if it weren’t for Paterno he likely would never have been nominated for the Pro Bowl, much less would he be in the NFL. Robinson went on to speak fondly of Paterno’s honesty in his recruitment, promising the up-and-comer that he would receive top-notch education at Penn State, and would compete for the quarterback position.

“Again, Joe Paterno did not lie to me,” Robinson said.

Robinson’s decision to make the long flight to pay tribute to his former coach is certainly admirable, but several players were wondering why Robinson was taking such a long flight out just before the Pro Bowl.

“Some of the game’s biggest stars, when I was down in Hawaii, were asking me, ‘Why are you going on the trip? Why are you going so far? It’s, like. 11 hours in the air,’ ” Robinson said. “My answer? ‘I wouldn’t be any other place in the world right now.’ ”

“Just because he’s not with us, don’t let the dream, don’t let the experiment, don’t let the values go away,” Robinson said as he closed out his speech. “He’s in all of us.”

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

Michael Robinson flies in from Hawaii to speak at Joe Paterno memorial service is a post from: The Inquisitr

Joshua Komisarjevsky, 31, was sentenced on Friday to death for the brutal home invasion murder of a woman and her two daughters at a Connecticut home in 2007.

“May God have mercy on your soul,” Superior Court Judge Jon C. Blue told Komisarjevsky after the sentence was handed down. “This is a terrible sentence, but it is a sentence you indeed wrote for yourself,” the judge said.

Throughout the hearing, Komisarjevsky maintained that the blame for the murders falls on his accomplice, Steven Hayes, who is also on death row for the home invasion murders.

“I know my responsibilities, but what I cannot do is carry the responsibilities of the actions of another,” he said during the hearing, as reported on by the Associated Press. “I did not want those innocent women to die.”

In July of 2007, Komisarjevsky and his accomplice, Hayes, burst through the front door of the Petit family’s home. Dr. William Petit, the only survivor of the horrific ordeal, was beaten with a baseball bat and was left tied up in the basement of his home.

Petit’s wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, was forced by the two men to go to a bank and withdraw money. Hayes then raped her before strangling her and ultimately killing her.

Petit’s daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, were both tied up in their bedrooms, where Komisarjevsky sexually assaulted the youngest of the two. Both little girls died due to smoke inhalation after the two men set the house on fire in an apparent attempt to destroy evidence.

As Petit testified during the hearing, he described the events as his “personal holocaust”.

“I lost my family and my home,” he said. “They were three special people. Your children are your jewels.”

[Image credit: AP]

Joshua Komisarjevsky sentenced to death for home invasion murders is a post from: The Inquisitr

Resident Evil Revelations hasn’t even had the chance to be released at retailers yet in North America, and yet Capcom is already dropping the price.

The game was originally announced to retail for $49.99, which is $10 above the standard price for Nintendo 3DS games. Capcom said at the time that the reason behind the $49.99 price tag for Resident Evil Revelations had to do with the 4GB cartridge the game uses, which is 2GB higher than your standard 3DS game.

Despite this, Capcom decided to go ahead and drop the price down to $39.99 anyway, nearly a week ahead of the game’s release in North America. Capcom’s Brett Elston explained in a post over on Capcom Unity:

“Late last year we announced the console-sized adventure that is Resident Evil Revelations would arrive on a 4GB card instead of the standard 2GB card; this increase in memory size led to an increase in price as well, raising the retail cost to $49.99. And while we’re confident in the game’s value at that price (and the reviews reflect that sentiment as well), we’re also exceedingly pleased to say that after weeks of effort, we’ve been able to lower the price to $39.99.

“Since the announcement of the $49.99 price point, we’ve spent weeks looking for a way to bring your cost down to standard 3DS pricing. Today we can finally confirm we were successful in this, and hope the reduced price encourages even more people to check out this strong entry in the Resident Evil canon.”

Do you plan to pick up Resident Evil Revelations on the Nintendo 3DS?

Resident Evil Revelations gets a price drop ahead of release date is a post from: The Inquisitr