Forged Battalion - PC Game Review

Forged Battalion is an RTS game for PC, currently in early access.

It is overall generic, except for the faction design, which allows you to create your own units, as well as upgrade structures, and the deep, persistent tech tree.

Overall, I found it conceptually interesting, and graphics are nice, but it did not work for me as it is.

Maybe later in development.

The Hobbit - Book Review

I just read The Hobbit - by J.R.R Tolkien.

It is very obviously a classic, but I never got around to reading it. There were some recent celebrations of Tolkien, so I after some recommendations of what was the best one to start with, I got an illustrated version (by Alan Lee).

It was quite pleasant. Of course, I had already seen the movies, so the story itself wasn't new to me, but I quite enjoyed reading it with the extra details.

One notable thing is how the dragon part and the battle of the five armies are comparatively underwhelming in the book version...

The illustrations were quite nice and really added a little extra flavor for the story.

Written In Fire - Book Review

Written in Fire, by Marcus Sakey, the is the finale of the Brilliance trilogy.

Now the war is prepped to start, and meanwhile John Smith has a superweapon getting ready...

Overall, pretty good, and a reasonable conclusion.

Forts - PC Game Review

Forts is a nice RTS, where you make forts to destroy other forts.

You build the whole structure, then add stuff like mines for metal, and wind turbines for power (the only resources).

Then you add weapons (such as mortar, machines guns, cannons, missiles and lasers) and upgrade these while shooting at your enemy and doing repairs.

Overall, it is fun. Took me 6 hours to finish the campaign, but there are many more maps.

A Better World - Book Review

A Better World, by Marcus Sakey, is the sequel to Brilliance.

Cooper got away with the murder in the first book, but now brilliant terrorist are attacking and crippling several cities' infrastructure. It seems that everyone wants to go to war...

Pretty good, too. Not sure how much I liked the portrayal of the speed brilliant. He can't watch movies and hates music because they are too slow... So, he and Smith could not figure out how to play music or movies 11 times faster, even with plenty of super advanced tech? It is not that hard... Specially when you consider that his power is not unique, just more powerful than the others.

Even regular DVDs and DVRs could be used with subtitles on...

Yes, that is a silly thing to nitpick on but for some reason it bothered me.