Homo Deus - Book Review

Home Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, by Yuval Noah Harari is a very interesting book that talks both about our future, and the past trends that made it and allows to imagine what our future would be like.

It was full of insights  on how things are, and on the current state of the art tech and what it means for our future.

Overall, very interesting, strongly recommended.

X-Morph: Defense - PC Game Review

X-Morph: Defense is an interesting hybrid of tower defense and top-down shooter.

You are an alien force defending your tower, which came to Earth to take our jobs (er, I mean resources). As usual, you have to place towers (which seem to have only types, not strengths) to make enemies walk on mazes and to destroy them.

As is traditional, there are several types of towers - regular, artillery, anti-air, etc. They can also have laser fences between them, so as to make more sense to why enemies just don't on their sides.

You also get an alien ship with various weapon types (you can make different choices on what are available on each mission).

Graphics are good. What frustrate me a bit is that the controls feel a bit clunky, and it is quite annoying to change bunches of towers between waves, as suddenly they stop making sense or can be destroyed by certain enemies (you lose nothing, but building towers in the middle of a wave is too time consuming).

Overall, pretty interesting take on tower defense hybrids, but the interface is a little tiresome for me.

Heat Signature - PC Game Review

Heat Signature is an interesting title, with roguelike parts. It is a top-down "shooter" where you invade a spaceship per mission and try to achieve objectives (such as kill someone, steal a device, etc) while using several objects - such as guns, stealth shields, the old trusty wrench, etc.

You can pause to issue orders, which makes a big difference.

So far I find it quite enjoyable. Graphics are very adequate, and run quite fast. Story is minimal and tutorial is somewhat adequate (I didn't get that you could throw objects at first, which was a big problem).

Some people complained that the missions are too similar, but I haven't played enough for this to be a factor yet.

Splasher - Game Review

Splasher is a platformer with an interesting use of paints, for different effects in surfaces. That reminds me a bit of Portal 2.

I'm not a big fan of tricky jumps and redoing sections, though, so it is really not for me.

Nice graphics and probably interesting for platformer fans, however.

Drawkanoid - Game Review

Drawkanoid is an interesting game based on Arkanoid. I've playing these since the 80s, and there many variations. I got it from the Humble Monthly Bundle.

This variation is defined by drawing the position of the paddle, with a slow time zone (otherwise you wouldn't have time to draw).

The graphics are pretty nice looking, with an abstract style and 80s neon colors. The effects look good.

There are also many possible upgrades, such as a bigger paddle, more lives, more damage, etc. For extra flavor some of these are activated by a number of bounces, which is an interesting choice.

Overall, though, the reactions needed on constant use of bullet time end up being very tiresome, so the game is fun for a little while, then feels like work.

Interesting concept, though.