STG's

I just got Frozen Synapse in the latest Humble Bundle. I've been meaning to check out their demo for a while, but never got the time. The game is in an interesting middle of the road as genre goes. I've played a few turn-based games (my fondest memories being of Silent Storm), but Frozen Synapse is not really like that - it feels more like a shooter puzzle. I like the gameplay, but I didn't really get the hang of it yet, so I'm still being massacred :-) Graphics look very nice, with the whole neon theme, and explosions look great. It is always fun to see a game that allows explosions to properly take walls. Since it is so different from most game I recommend that you try the demo first.

Very cool looking new views for your blogs: It is nice to see some innovation from Blogger - frankly I thought Google have given up on it!

Demolition Inc. is a very neat 3D chain reaction game. You are an alien who has to destroy all cities on Earth to return the planet to a pristine state. Apparently they were all out of ray guns, because you will have to work with oil, glue, explosive cows and the like to set chain reactions with cars and trucks to destroy buildings. The demo is VERY short, but I liked it. You have to suck the debris, both to get bonuses and so that the cars and trucks can keep moving. I've heard complaints of debris getting stuck, but didn't have any problems. My sole complaint is that for whatever reason it decided to start on monitor 1 instead of the primary monitor, which is very uncommon (I think I've seen another game do this a few years ago). You do have an option to switch to whatever monitor you want, so it is not that annoying. I recommend that you download the demo and try it out. Update: The game was on sale and I bought it. Turns out that the demo levels were way more...

Heat Rises  by Richard Castle (well, not really as he is a fictional character) is the third novel on the Nikki Heat series. The series is a tie-in with the TV series Castle. While I'm not traditionally much of a fan of mysteries, all books in the series have been good so far, and the tie-in aspects really add to my enjoyment of the books. This one is no exception. I did feel that the story on this one was more complicated, and I have to say that I never imagined who was the culprit - but I think it used the traditional Agatha Christie system of not giving up all elements that the detective has to the reader. Nice references to the show (in particular the dedication to the captain, killed in the TV series). I really liked the tiny reference to Malcolm Reynolds - the main Firefly character which was played by Nathan Fillion, the actor who plays Richard Castle. Very nice, recommended.

The Parasite, by Neal Asher  is a 1996 novella sized SF tale. It is does not take place in the Polity universe, although any casual reader familiar with Asher later works would probably assume it was - the main topic is an alien tech or species that takes over humans, making them better in the process. And it also has a  golem that someone tries to make crazy and anti-proton weapons. Clearly Asher was already interested in these topics way before he got around to the Polity books. It is a pretty good read (and in fact it had been a while since I couldn't sleep before finishing a book), and there is a nice amount of action. The ending is nice, but clearly less optimal to the creation of a continuing series than the regular Jain tech used later. On a side note, it is somewhat interesting that this is the first time Asher self-publishes. I imagine that he gets a lot more per unit than on regular books. Good look with that! Very much recommended.

Wasteland Angel is a cute top-view drive and shoot game. The action is basically driving around shooting your enemies with machines guns, napalm, missiles and more, and getting power ups. A big part of the action is saving citizens from slavers, which just entails shooting the special cars that kidnap them. One funny thing about the graphics - the most I can set here is 1680x1050. Very surprising to see on a Full HD monitor (1920x1080). It also has a very common problem - the mouse cursor is not locked to the game area. So if you have more than one monitor, one larger move and you are thrown out of the game. Gameplay is OK. The action is fairly fast, and there doesn't seem to have a lot of strategy involved. The physics of the cars is satisfying enough. It also has some nice comic style cutscenes, like this one: Overall, if you usually like that kind of game, I recommend taking a look at the demo.

I've just finished  Live free Or Die, by John Ringo. It is, oddly enough, derived from a webcomic - Schlock Mercenary  . As quite usual for Ringo, the topic is aliens suddenly attacking an ill prepared near future mankind, who rise to the challenge. I really liked this one. The book starts with an interstellar gate being installed near Earth. Right away aliens come to trade - and to demand tribute. One man figures out exactly the right thing to trade for, and builds on that to start defending the planet... Very nice tech and large scale engineering, particularly loved the "Death Star" design. Very much recommended. In fact, I just went and bought the two sequels - together with a bunch of other books - on Webscription.net

Blocks that Matter is an interesting puzzle game. The biggest innovation is that you go around absorbing cubes of matter, which can then be reused to solve the puzzle. It is interesting but I rarely like puzzle games. If you do, you might want to try the demo.

Engineering Infinity  is a wonderful collection of short hard SF stories, edited by  Johnathan Strahan.  This is one of the best of all short story collections I've ever read in recent years. Malak by Peter Watts A nice story about an AI drone. Very satisfying ending - I laughed out loud. Watching the Music Dance by Kristine Kathryn Rusch Wonderful little story about implants, a little girl and her music. Laika's Ghost by Carl Schoeder This one was quite clever, and involves data glasses, which seem to be coming back into fashion in SF with all the augmented reality apps in smartphones and tablets. Loved the use of the old Orion Project principle. The Invasion of Venus by Stephen Baxter Loved the BFG in this one!  The Server and the Dragon by Hannug Rajaniemi I really the liked the Von Neumann galaxy-wide network scheme in this one. The dragon bits were quite whimsical.  Bit Rot by Charles Stross Best of a specific Horror S...

Hard Reset is a cyberpunk FPS. The developers - Flying Wild Hog - describe it is an old school shooter. It is hard to disagree. I don't know exactly what gives it that feel, but it certainly is there. The graphics are good, although some of the objects feel like they come from an older game. The lightning arcs look great, and you will probably see a lot of them - one of the things the game encourages is blowing up electrical panels and the like to fry your enemies. Your enemies - at least in the demo - are all different kind of robots. They look very nice and seem on the quirky side - they have a few different cool looking moves. The weapons and upgrades look nice. You have the classic rifle and plasma guns, as well as many others - applied as firing modes on the projectile and energy weapons. The weapon above, for example, is an electrical mortar. It nicely spreads lightning on your enemies, and then explodes. The cut-scenes are comic book panels, with nice art. I ...

WarHammer 40,000: Space Marine  is a rather intense third-person shooter set into the WarHammer universe. I've only played the demo so far - I'll update this post if this changes. You play a Space Marine captain. Space Marines are very tough and were not only trained but altered for the task. On the game, you will usually be fighting whole hordes of Orcs, and be attacked from many different directions at once. You have both ranged weapons - pretty standard fare - or close-ranged weapons such as chainsaws and power axes. The animations for the close-ranged weapons are pretty cool, and you can kill quite a few enemies at once with them. The game has an interesting mechanic for regaining health - you can stun enemies with a special key, and do a special execution to get more health. The executions are particularly cool and involve throwing the enemies, or gutting them with the chainsaw. Particularly nice are the jump pod sequences - jumping high in the levels is nice, ...