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Showing posts from October, 2011

The Hot Gate: Troy Rising III - Review

The Hot Gate:Troy Rising III  by John Ringo follows Live Free or Die and  Citadel  into what is called the Troy Rising series. The series covers the events after Earth gets an interestellar gate, galactic tech and some new enemies. The fight continues on the third book, with extra battlestations being built. The main focus is on the Termopylae,  which - in a possibly offensive way to all south americans -  is filled with incompetent spacers from Argentina, Chile, Equador and other south american countries. Apparently they are useless because of their culture. I guess since Ringo kept Brazil off the list, I can't be nearly as offended... Another AI breakdown happens (apparently they are a lot buggier than initially apparent, as one breaks down per book since the 1st...), Tyler and Dana Parker's relationship continues to develop, and as usual there is a massive battle to end the book. Pretty good, as usual,

Data Jammers: FastForward PC Game Review

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Data Jammers: FastForward is a very nice looking, retro style game, which reminds me of a "lane hopping" game design that I remember playing in arcades and my Intellivision back in the 80s. From what I've seen in the demo, you hop between lanes (which divide with very nice visuals, which reminds me of Tron Legacy) and use bombs or pushing to destroy your enemies. It all looks great, and the trailer theme is adorable, but in practice I really don't get the gameplay. Enemies seem to come from everywhere, and all you have is area off effect bombs, which you can't really use all the time as you only get a couple and the eventual replacement. I don't recommend it. But if you really think you are going to like it, try the demo first, which is only a few megabytes.

The Haunted: Hells Reach PC Review

The Haunted: Hells Reach is an unusual third-person based demon hunting game. It seems to have a lot of things I don't like - it is third-person based, no tutorial at all (there is a how to play section in the menu), and enemies that pop out of nowhere right in front of you. Graphics are pretty good. Punching and kicking is OK and there are a few different moves. You can also shoot with a handgun, shotgun or commando rifle. Overall, I didn't like it, but without a tutorial or explanations I don't think I really got the game at all. I'll update this post if I play more.

The Skinner - Neal Asher

The Skinner  - by Neal Asher - is the first of the SpatterJay series. I had heard it was pretty good, but I ended up reading the Ian Cormac series first. It was pretty good, so I didn't think the SpatterJay series could be much better. I was wrong. Very wrong. The Skinner was simply awesome. Asher seems to take a lot of pleasure in creating incredibly complex ecologies with horrible, yet believable creatures. Spatterjay, with the "magic" virus that can keep humans living forever while changing, and a veritable panoply of dangerous creatures, is easily one of his best. There were plenty of battles and action on the book, and a new ECS agent - Sable Keech. The ending was quite satisfying yet leaving plenty for the rest of series. I already bought the next one, of course. Very strongly recommended. Get The Skinner now at Amazon

Dungeon Defenders - PC Review

Dungeon Defenders is a very nice looking Tower Defense/RPG . It uses Unreal as the game engine and it really shows in the beautiful graphics. My problem with it is the interface. It uses an incredibly annoying top view camera, which I pretty much hated. The movement also feels more like a RPG with indirect control, but it uses FPS controls. So I really couldn't bear it for more than a few minutes. I have been playing Orcs Must Die!  - which in theory is similar, but have very different controls and that probably didn't help. Really not recommended. Try  Orcs Must Die!  instead.

LightFish Review

Lightfish is another QIX clone. For those that don't remember it, you walk only or borders, and must enclose a region of space, without being touched while drawing the limits. It is not particularly bad, and the graphics are quite good (in a retro way), but I'm not a fan of the keyboard based control-scheme, and that really ruined it for me. One QIX clone I really liked was  Cosmo Bots  (Warning: download link). The different bugs and map shapes made it quite fun, and I really preferred the mouse based control scheme. I'm a bit amazed that they still sell it for US$20 after all those years, though!

iTunes Error Solved

Since I tried to install an update about a month ago, I've been unable to use iTunes. I've uninstalled and reinstalled several times, but there was always a new error. Quicktime wasn't installed properly, Apple Software Support wasn't installed (but trying to install made the installer complain that it was already installed), and several more. What did solve my problem was following this article by Apple  . In particular, I looked at these folders and some of them still had files after I uninstalled everything. Re-installing iTunes now seemed to solve everything. BTW, I can't help but feel that the Windows version of iTunes (at least, I've never used the Mac version) is horribly full of flimsy dependencies. There are a ton of similar complaints about the web. At least they are now designing their iOS so that you don't really have to use it for downloads or upgrades...

Orcs Must Die! won't launch - SOLVED

I've just tried to run Orcs Must Die! , but I had a problem. It wouldn't run at all, just launch the icon and then disappear quietly. I found the solution in this FAQ  by the game authors. It is fairly easy: - Find the game on Steam (if you have a large list like me, might be easier to switch to Recently Played games first) - Right-click on the game title - Choose the Local Files tab - Verify Integrity of Game Cache There were 8 files with problems on mine. After that the game ran fine. And I have to say that so far I like it a lot - see Orcs Must Die! Review  for my opinion. Amazon.com Widgets

Citadel - John Ringo - Review

Citadel  - by  John Ringo is the second book in the Troy Rising series. I have read and reviewed Live Free Or Die  last month. In the series, an interestellar gate is installed near Earth,  and trouble soon ensues. But Earth is fighting back, and Troy is the biggest weapon - a massive asteroid, with plenty of guns and armor. In the second book, there is a lot expansion into secondary characters, and an interesting view from another angle of the shuttle incident in the end of the first book. Of course, the fight continues in neat ways. While it is a bit of spoiler, I was surprised that it took this long for the characters to go with a Project Orion style propulsion. Very good, strongly recommended.

Orcs Must Die! - Review

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Orcs Must Die! is an awesome tower defense/FPS game. Tower Defense/FPS is not a particularly common genre, but there are a few of them out there - such as Sanctum or Iron Grip: Warlord  . Orcs Must Die! is quite simple - you have to defend the Time Rifts in a bunch of different castles from an horde of Orcs. You will do it with weapons - such as a sword or a crossbow - and traps - on the demo all you get are floor spikes, wall arrows, tar traps and exploding barrels. This allow for quite a bit of strategy in the placement. There are also crossbow and sword defenders, but at least on the demo they are at fixed positions. The traps are also upgradable, and it looks like you collect new traps during the campaign. Another strategic element is that you only have a few slots, so you will have to pick which traps are best for your strategy and specific castles. Graphics are great and so is the sound. I love the gameplay in the demo. It is just at the appropriate side of frantic...

Astro Tripper PC Review

Astro Tripper is yet another space shooter. I've been playing these since the 80s, and I can't say that Astro Tripper has anything new. I've also seen nicer graphics on flash versions (although there are some nice looking effects). I didn't enjoy it at all. Really not recommended.

Xotic PC Review

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Xotic is an unusual FPS. The theme is somewhat trippy - a mental entity called the Orb went crazy and it taking bodies across planets, which devastate them. You are another weird entity that will fix the planets  -mostly by shooting at red balls - and take on the orb. The graphics are OK enough, (and some items, such as the alien plants, look very nice) but I can't help but find that the style of the gameplay reminds of the Doom clones back in the 90s. Not recommended - the game play is mostly annoying.