STG's

Dishonored is a stealth FPS, with a steampunk universe and plenty of magic mixed in. In the game, you are a bodyguard to the empress, who is turned into a stealthy assassin when you are framed for her murder. Graphics are pretty good, and overall I really like the stealth system (a little too simple compared to the old light meters, though). Movement is great and there are plenty of roof and pipes if you want to go that way. You have a number of powers available, which can be bought using runes. The first one you get allows you to teleport between short distances, which is great on a stealth game. There are upgrades for health, stealth, etc too. You have quite a few weapon upgrades, too, which you buy with coins and other rare objects you find in the world. There are plenty of ways to kill your enemies or sneak by them, and the game allows to you to go either way. I think the stealth option is usually way more fun, though (although a bit harder). You can also just knock oppon...

Oh Myyy! (There Goes The Internet) ,   by George Takei , is a non-fiction book that mostly covers his Social Media fame. It is a fun read, and really something that you want to read on a tablet or PC - it has plenty of color photos, mostly of random memes relevant to what he is talking about. I started reading on my e-ink Kindle and switched to the iPad after a few pages. While I doubt most of his advice is useful to people who want to succeed in social media such as Facebook or Twitter, there are a few useful insights there. One amusing aspect is hearing about posts (why they were posted or consequences) that I have seen myself, some a few weeks ago. My only complaint is that some links worked, but some wouldn't launch on the iPad, not sure why. Otherwise, worth checking out.

Eufloria is a Galcon clone. That means that basically, you have planets with differing production capabilities, and you move your ships (in this case, seedlings) around to attack and take over enemy planets. Eufloria on the iPad has great graphics, and a mildly annoying soundtrack. I've also played it on the PC and on an Android smartphone (Galaxy SIII). The graphics detail is much better, and I didn't feel the problems I usually had with the Android version (trying to select a planet and getting a laser pod or flower). If that is because of the larger screen on touchscreen sensitivity, I don't know. Eufloria starts slow but gets much better over time. You get to change each planets power (terraforming), auto-moving new units to another planet, creating laser pods and enhanced seedlings using flowers, and more.  I didn't like the game much at first but after playing for a while I ended up really enjoying it. Strongly recommend.

Gianna Sisters - Twisted Dreams is a platformer with a incredibly common twist - the world changes between modes (this time, as invoked by sisters). And naturally, you must keep switching to move along. The game looks good enough, and the music is pretty good (a version of Gianna Sisters from Machinae Supremacy - the original version is better, but it doesn't have to keep playing for such long times). I really don't like the gameplay. It is a platformer, so this is not by itself surprising - I'm not a fan. You go around jumping and avoiding the generic "don't step here" points, and you have a power per sister - one turns into a fireball that can kill monsters and knock down certain walls, and the other spins to glide from point to point. If you like platformers, you might want to try the demo. Otherwise, don't bother.

Planets under Attack is another tactical shooter based on Galcon. On this sub-genre, you basically the flow of ships between planets, with the purpose of keeping your planets defended and producing more ships, while at the same time attacking your enemies' planets. Planets under Attack looks pretty nice, and it has a few deviations from the base model, such as domination (points for holding specific planets), blocked paths, and a simple tech progression (basic bonus for stuff like defense, attack, production, etc). Gameplay is OK, but so far I still prefer Eufloria , which has better gameplay and more interesting tactical options - such as different units, defense emplacements (laser pods), basic defense/production choices, etc. Still, if the game seems interesting to you, you can get a free demo from Steam .

Transcripted is an interesting crossover between shooters and match-3 games. Basically you shoot your enemies (who happen to be weird pathogens - either bio-engineered or natural from outer space, you don't know at the beginning of the game) and they drop power ups or cubes. You shoot the color cubes in a Zuma kind of a way, to destroy enemy DNA. You also get XP to use for upgrades. Overall, it is OK. The extremely slow movement when you have a cube and the constant transition between the two modes makes the game less enjoyable that either of the genres alone, though. You might want to try the demo if it sounds fun.

Blaise Pascal is a magazine that covers Delphi, Free Pascal and related languages. You can get it from their site . They have both downloads and printed versions. Personally I rarely subscribe to anything on paper - there is always a hassle on receiving, storing and searching them. When you buy a subscription you get a USB drive with all the previous edition. At the time this wasn't understandable at their site (they have BAD translation and clarity problems on their site) so I was quite pleasantly surprised to get it in the mail. As content goes, it is OK for the price. One interesting thing about the magazine is that a whole lot of the articles are written by a product author. Let's see the current issue contents: Book Review  By Jim Duff Match5, a self learning board game  By David Dirkse Programming in Smart: Application Design  By Primož Gabrijelčič TMS FlexCel for VCL and FireMonkey  By Adrian Gallero Delphi IDE Tips  By Brian Long Be-Delphi (2012 ...

Robocalypse, by Daniel H Wilson  is a SF novel with a now very classic theme - an AI (Archos) taking over the world. The story is told by Cormac (no relation to the Neal Asher super agent, I presume )  based on a large log cache he finds containing information after the war is won. It is divided in many smaller stories, from the view of the AI creator, prominent resistance fighters, a phone phreak, a little girl, and many more. The story telling system works well enough, but I found the format a bit annoying. Still, the story is very good and the tech feels quite real, including a number of more uncommon ideas for specialized robots. Pretty good, recommended.

Counting from Zero  by Dr. Alan B. Johnston  is a techno-thriller about botnets. Unlike most techno-thrillers, the tech on this one actually makes sense - and the threat is very real. Dr. Johnston is an expert on the related fields and the co-author of ZRTP (secure VOIP protocol), and it really shows on how real most situations on the book are. The story is pretty good - although in a sense it is a little scarier than the average thriller, being so well based on real security and privacy problems. The only thing I'm not crazy about is the Kateryna relationship - it felt poorly resolved in the end. Still, very much recommended.

Sine More is an horizontal shoot'em up. It looks nice enough, but the story is somewhere between silly and incomprehensible, and very much woven through the play - every 20 or 30 seconds there is a unnecessary tidbit. It also really likes rotating things into view. While that does give you a warning and time to start shooting, it also seems like the game is trying to point out that yes, it really is a 3D game. You seem to drive a few slightly different ships, specially as the secondary armament goes - you get seeker missiles, extra drones and a massive wave attack - all classics of the genre. These are very much rationed and you only seem to get a few per level. You can also slow time, specially to dodge enemy fire and when maneuvering in close spaces. It is important to dodge enemy fire, because your main weapon power-ups "eject" from the ship when you are hit, and you have to quickly catch them to get them back. The close space sections are fairly annoying, th...

Ready Player One  , by Ernest Cline , is a SF book that takes place in 2044. Things got really messed up, with global warming, energy and food shortages, and widespread poverty is the norm. The one thing that keep most people going is OASIS - a VR simulation with thousands of words, accessed through haptic gloves and laser goggles (which immediately remind me of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash), as well as more advanced hardware. Even schools are available through the VR network. The creator of OASIS died a few years ago, and left all he owned to the winner of a contest - the first to go through a number of puzzles based on 80s games and culture, wins the control of the company as well as a 240 billion dollars. Naturally, everyone is trying to get it. And that is where the story starts, with a poor teenager who knows everything about the 80s games, music, movies and series. He is to be the first to decode the first clue... And then the race to finish is on. I really loved this...

Tows is a town/RPG sim with an interesting twist - the town is on top of a dungeon and you must cater to the heroes than enter it. The graphics are VERY retro (looks like a 80s game), but that is somewhat adequate. The music is very repetitive and annoying, but what really breaks the game is the absurd complexity of the interface. The number of silly steps to do even simple things is amazing. I imagine they either didn't play the same sim/empire building games I did, or if they did they completely disagreed with their choices. Really not recommended.

pid is a platformer with a gimmick. The big gimmick is that you can throw gems that create "beams". You can use these beams to fly above obstacles or dangers, in vertical, horizontal, and diagonal configurations - it all depends on where you throw the gems. You can also use them to kill enemies - moving them into deadly spikes, for example. The game story is a little on the absurd side. You are a schoolboy who slept in the bus and got dropped by the driver in a strange planet, and now you must find your way home. The graphics are unusual but nice. The gameplay is interesting but it is a platformer with puzzles and with a bit of a slow pace, so I'll not be buying it. If you like platformers, you might want to try the demo.

FLY'N is a platformer, but it is a very unusual one. It does feature some of the genres commonplaces, such as jumping and collecting stuff, but there is plenty of weird features. The graphics are beautiful, in an unusual art style, and so is the music. I have no idea what is going on with the game story, but apparently there is an evil overlord who stole something shiny from something like a tree. You are something (I really have no idea what the main character is supposed to be) running around platforms. You can jump, double-jump, glide, and switch between two visions of the world, which you need to do often to continue on your way. All of the enemies I have seen are a red stuff, which you must not touch. The tutorial is very minimalist (and in fact, I had some trouble figuring out what to do on start). On the other hand, I imagine translating the game will be very easy. The gameplay is somewhat interesting, but a bit repetitive. If you like platformers, you might wa...

iBomber Attack is a classic style, top-down tank shooter. You play moving the task with WASD keys. Unfortunately, these point where you are going directly - not W for move forward and AD to turn. This is a pet peeve for me, because a) it is counter intuitive to me and b) it induces the vehicle to make turns where you just want it to rotate, thus making it hit obstacles. You aim your guns with the mouse. You have a main gun and machine gun that you flip through with the right mouse button - I'd rather they were assigned to each button, but maybe there are more guns later in the game. You also have a few bombs that you can drag anywhere in the screen. The bomb might remind you of the other iBomber games, and as I see it a tank game is a wonderful idea -  I mean, they have all these graphic assets and code from their tower defense games, how hard can it be to make a tank game? Music is mute during the actual mission, and sound and graphics are acceptable (on a retro style, of ...

I was happy to see that Call of Duty: Black Ops II has a bots option in multiplayer. Just choose custom games and use Setup Bots . Please note that it loses the settings constantly - for no good reason that I can see. Yes, it would need to reset if you have too many bots for a map, but it happens with maps that allow the same number of bots. So if the star isn't displaying on the right side of Setup Bots , go back there, or you will have to restart the game. You can add up to 11 bots in the maps I tested. The nice part is that unlike Call of Duty: Black Ops Combat Training, you can use several game modes with the bots. It overall feels much less fun than Combat Training, because you don't get the full challenges and unlocks that you got in it... The really, really lame part is that if you lose your connection to Steam (or their servers? not sure), your completely local game just stops. That is VERY annoying, and I imagine it is some sort of DRM based idea (at the ...

While playing Call of Duty: Black Ops II I got a bit of trouble on one of the drone sections. Essentially I hit some kind of bug where the drone would detect me by sound even if I was still. Online it was  suggested that I keep following my partner, but for whatever reason that never worked. Walking through the room instead, waiting for the drone to pass and then just walking is what eventually worked. Very annoying, though.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II looks to be just like the rest of the COD franchise. The first 3 missions are regular, rail shooting (from a boat) and stealth - almost like they are trying to keep things exactly balanced. That first section is in flashbacks. The section with the new tech is a lot cooler. There is a completely unnecessary but still fun segment where you climb a vertical wall in a mountain using gloves that stick to it, and swinging from a rope with your partner. Then you use a wingsuit to fly into place (particularly annoying - and the first time I really felt the need to increase DPI of my mouse during a game). Cloaked soldiers in COD: Black Ops II The chinese soldiers have cloaking systems, which are counteracted by your weapon sights. It is a bit hard to view them at a distance, but you do get to see them through obstacles. Before missions you can choose loadout from stuff you have unlocked. One of those is an access kit, which gives you access to differen...

Monster Hunter Vendetta - by Larry Correia - uses many of the classical terror universe, seen in many movies and books - monsters are real, but everyone who knows covers it up. In Monster Hunter International, the hunters are survivors of attacks that survived and were recruited, and they make large amounts of money, from both private jobs and a government bounty program. In the previous book of the series (I just know what I read in this one - I got it in a Webscription pack), the main character defeated one of the Old Ones (Lovecraftian horrors from other universes), and it got pretty angry. And now he is sending a crazy cult leader necromancer for his vengeance... Pretty good, silly at some points but fun and full of epic battles. I'll definitely read the rest of the series. You can get it DRM-free at Baen  .

I have been bothered by the lack of updates on a Windows XP SP3 virtual machine I have. Today I decided to dig into the problem, and after a long, long while I got it to work. One of the clues was following message on windowsupdate.log (just Start->Run and type windowsupdate.log - very useful) FATAL: Service 7971F918-A847-4430-9279-4A52D1EFE18D requested, but it is expired I'm still not sure WHICH of the many fixes I tried worked, but what I did that seems more likely: 1) Downloaded the latest version of Windows Update agent from Microsoft  (it is in the Resolution section, way down) and installed it. 2) Went into Control Panel, Security Center, click on Automatic Update (the link on the bottom), chose Turn off Automatic Updates , and clicked on Apply. Then clicked on Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them and on Apply. At this point, it immediately started to download updates (34 - it had been a while). Please note that restarting the service...

For several months now, I've had a problem where suspending a development VM in VMWare Workstation 8 slows the computer down dramatically for 10-15 minutes. I found that specially surprising because I have 12GB of RAM in this particular computer, and it is a 3.5GB VM, so there were no memory problems. As you can imagine, that was quite disruptive, but till today I didn't find a solution that worked. Luckily my search today led me to the following, simple solution. Just add the following lines to your VMX file: mainMem.useNamedFile = "FALSE" prefvmx.useRecommendedLockedMemSize = "TRUE" prefvmx.minVmMemPct = "100" This seemed to fix my problem.

I've recently setup an account on Humble Bundle. This means that all of those old purchases showed up in the same page. Naturally, the last is Zen Puzzle Garden, which I didn't remember trying before. I can only imagine I saw what it was about and ignored it. It is a very old style game (feels like an early 90s game), in graphics and sound, where the puzzles focus on raking sand on a path that doesn't repeat itself, with rocks in the middle so that you have to make a complex path. You also have to pick up leaves in a specific color order. I didn't like it. At all.

Waking Mars is an unusual puzzle platformer. In this game, you are a scientist with a jetpack going through a cave on mars. As you go around, you find somewhat forced puzzles that require you to increase the biomass on cave sections to continue. You do this by throwing several kinds of seeds around to achieve the intended effect. You also have to avoid acid pools and dropping rocks and acid. The graphics are OK (the semi static popup faces are quite good), the music is acceptable, but I didn't find the gameplay particularly fun. There is also an Android version.

Eufloria is a Galcon clone. That means that basically, you have planets with differing production capabilities, and you move your ships (in this case, seedlings) around to attack and take over enemy planets. Eufloria does have cute graphics, and a mildly annoying soundtrack, but I find the gameplay to be more of a chore than fun. update: I've played a few levels more, and now I like it. the interface still seems to take much more of an effort than I'd like, though. The PC controls are better than the touch screen version. Other than that, they seem to be identical, except that the graphic detail looks better on the bigger PC screen.

Eufloria is a Galcon clone. That means that basically, you have planets with differing production capabilities, and you move your ships (in this case, seedlings) around to attack and take over enemy planets. Eufloria does have cute graphics, and a mildly annoying soundtrack, but I find the gameplay to be more of a chore than fun. It is also available for Android. The PC controls are better than the touch screen version.

Just watched Battleship yesterday. It is impressive (and ridiculous) how they managed to make a movie out of such a simple game... The actual Battleship game part of the movie was quite silly, but was fairly watchable if you pretend that it makes sense. Overall I liked it for the action. But still, pretty stupid story.

The quest Breaking the Bank, on  Borderlands 2 , broke on me when I tried it. At a certain point, a skag had to eat the explosives. But instead it attacked me, and I killed it. There were a bunch of suggestions around, but just using Quit, going to the main title screen and returning with Continue solved it right away for me.

I was just looking around a local store when I saw the iPad Smart Case. I didn't get the Smart Cover before because it didn't protect anything else - just the glass surface. I never used it, but I keep hearing that a common problem is people trying to hold it by the cover and dropping their iPad. The case fully encloses the iPad so I imagine it should do better. One thing I was a bit impressed is that the case's case :-)  is very easy to open. Just remove a label and push a tab, and the front opens. Then just press the iPad inside the case. Overall just 20 seconds from closed case to it working. Turning the iPad on and off with the cover is surprisingly pleasant, too. I imagine the folding action is good if you use your iPad on the side. Then the cover can hold it slightly tilted or full upright (on a hard surface, such as a table). I don't use much this way myself, though. It comes on a bunch of colors. I got the one that matches my iPad best - light gray. ...

Hacker news 23 has a few interesting items, although it was much weaker than usual. The Cicada Principle , by Alex Walker shows an interesting way to make seamless tiles in CSS. Suffering-Oriented Programming , by Nathan Marz - the most thought inspiring piece in this issue. The basic principle is that for any problem, make it possible, then make it beautiful, then fast. The basic idea is that trying to generalize when in a new problem domain tends to go badly and waste time because you don't understand all of it at first. Making a quick hack to solve it can be more effective - you can create a good solution later, when you have more detail. And only at that point you should optimize. Automate Everything , by Tom Blomfield - a look on the way they used to automate expense reports. Short, but clever. Uncloaking a Slumlord Conspiracy with Social Network Analysis , by Valdis Krebs - this may sound like a Facebook thing, but it actually shows how to data was visualized to sho...

Get more from Life, by Scott Young, is a collection of his 20 more popular articles from his blog, covering a few self-improvement topics - including create new habits, reading, studying, energy management and much more. There is some fluff, but I find that most of the articles do have some interesting bits that can be applied to my life. Unfortunately, the e-book is presented as a PDF, which is much inferior to the MOBI format in the Kindle iPad version. In particular, you can only bookmark pages, not highlight text. Some of the topics I found particularly interesting: conditioning new habits - natural and simulated conditioning techniques, leveraging. look at all aspects when replacing an habit, including social and relaxation. velocity based goal setting. energy management. overcoming discouragement - create an immediate success and reward attempts. 7 rules to understand people. improving e-mail habits. using deadlines. Overall, I found the book useful, and not to...

Mark of the Ninja is a stealth platformer. This is not the most popular genre mix (I don't even recall seeing it before), but in this case it works very well. For most of the game, your easiest option is sneaking past your enemies, only killing them when necessary. There are plenty of special moves, such as using a grappling hook (only in the specified places - which solves a common problem with games with hooks where users get on unexpected places and ruin the flow), climbing walls, hiding places, and there are plenty of vents for you to sneak in. One very cool vent move you can make is simply pulling a close by guard into the vent and killing him (there is even a specific bonus - something about a waiting spider). Graphics are great, with finish moves having a zoom and cartoon style. Graphics also include circles displaying sound (both yours and from your enemies). That allows you to judge where your enemies are when you can't see them, as the game uses a proper ...

Deadlight is a zombie game platformer, with great graphics and a unique style. The platformer part is not very demanding (just regular, long jumps and a wall jump so far). There are a few puzzles, but mostly logical and simple stuff. It also has plenty of checkpoints and quick loads, which is always welcome where a single failed jump can kill you. I don't usually like platformers, but I really like it so far. I will update this as I play more.

Saltation, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, is another book in the  Liaden Universe . I have read and reviewed  several of these before . Saltation is the sequel to Fledgling , and it starts as Theo Waitley is arriving at Pilot school. It then develops into what is mostly a teen prodigy school sequence, which is somewhat common in SF (still good, though) The story only has a few moments of action now and then, and ends introducing a problem with an AI ship and with Win Ton that will only be resolved in a sequel, and in almost the exact same scene for Theo from Korval's Game  . I was expecting something being solved in that area, but nope. The AI views in the Liaden Universe are kind of funny to me. Clearly they have near sentience or sentience in some devices (such as the repurposed war bot of Daav and Er Thom), but other than that they almost never appear, and even when they clearly should be doing a good work (piloting, for example) . It is a bit like they are...

Fledgling, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, is another book in the Liaden Universe . I have read and reviewed several of these before . Fledgling focus on Theo Waitley, the daughter of Daav, although he has a different name - see the events of Mouse and Dragon for explanations. Reading it is not necessary but it helps. She lives in Delgado, a safe planet, with many cutely odd customs. She is very clumsy, which is a constant problem for her and her mother. But all of that is going to change... Fledgling is a nice book, albeit more "teen" than the others in the series. There are a few cutesy technologies added to the universe (AFAIK), such as the mumu for an advanced smartphone. It also starts a bit slow but speeds up along the way. Overall, I liked it, and it is worth reading if you are a fan of the series, and maybe even if you are not. You can get it DRM-free at Baen  .

Just had to post the funny message on a fake BSOD in a monitor bank in Borderlands 2:

Today the Mechromancer pack for Borderlands 2 was released. Fortunately (and because of the bonuses), I got Borderlands 2 on pre-order, so I got it for free. I have to say that I was a bit bored after a few hours playing as the siren. The power is simply too lame before upgrades - you freeze a single enemy for a few seconds. That is it. Now, the Mechromancer Deathtrap robot is just devastating. I'm not sure if they did it on purpose, to sell the DLC, but it can take several enemies by itself, using a combination of melee and ranged electrical attacks. The whole game seems a lot easier. And some of the skills seem to reflect that - some of the first options on the left skill screen (Best Friends Forever) include health recharge on full gun magazine and bullets reflecting on walls having a chance to hit an enemy (with reduced damage). Overall, a great addition to the game, and I recommend using it. BTW, if after you get to level 5 you could start new characters at level 5...

Tryst is an RTS with what seems like mostly regular elements (although, as usual, they seem to think they revolutionized the genre). I should know more, having downloaded the demo, but the demo has nothing of the single player game, just multiplayer (and the tutorials are apparently only videos). And you need to create an account to start multiplayer (which I'm not a big fan of to start with). At this point I just gave up on the game and uninstalled it.

A Bloody Storm - by Richard Castle - is the third part of a book that started with A Brewing Storm  . Plenty of action here, and the story ends well, with the obligatory plot twists and betrayals, as well as a set up for the next story. It was full of typos as well - at one spot Agent Shower is Agent Flowers. I have to say that even with this annoying format, I'd probably get more of these. I'm not sure they are using the same ghost writer as the Heat series, though.

A Raging Storm - by Richard Castle - is the "sequel" to A Brewing Storm . Sequel is not really true, as A Brewing Storm just stops at the middle of the scene. I imagine some publisher thought that a serial format would sell more - maybe by making the first book cheaper? A complaint that I've seen in the reviews is that the editing is terrible - and it really is. In a book on this scale I wouldn't normally expect typos, but there are plenty here. Either way, A Raging Storm is pretty good - and pretty short. And it ends in a even more irritating place - which virtually guarantees that anyone with a Kindle on-line that reaches the end will buy the next book.

Mouse and Dragon, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller is another book in the Liaden universe. It covers Aelliana Caillon - who wins a ship and ends up with the Delm of Korval, Daav. The book was good, but the ending is sad, and feels a little silly. It is probably a good idea to read this first if you read Korval's Game - not strictly necessary, but some parts of it will make more sense. You can get it at Baen as an e-book .

It is several months old, but I finally got around to reading The Final Hours of Portal 2, a view of the development of Portal 2. It was pretty good. Not only the coverage was interesting (specially the various iterations to get at the final game story) , but there was plenty of interesting extras, such as panoramas of Valve, videos, polls and photos. Very much worth seeing for fans of the game.

Hitman: Sniper Challenge is a sniper game that came free with the Hitman: Absolution pre-order. In fact, that is the main reason I got it on pre-order. Even for games I expect to be good, I rarely buy on pre-orders anymore without some extra thrown in. I imagine that was the thinking behind Sniper Challenge, and that it probably succeeded. Sniper Challenge is 47 on a roof with a fixed weapon (sniper rifle with silencer) and his mission is killing a business man, and all his bodyguards. Unusually for a Hitman game, killing the main character is trivially easy. Getting all the bodyguards isn't, though. And as in all Hitman games, there are many ways to kill. In Sniper Challenge, you can just shoot them (including more than one with one shot), shoot them off the roof, drop barrels to kill a guard, kill someone down an elevator shaft, or my favorite, activating a bunch of mines. There are also a number of challenges - from the trivial (kill main enemy in a short time) to the ve...

Hell Yeah! Wrath of The Dead Rabbit is a funny, over the top hell-themed platformer. The main character is the prince of Hell, humiliated because of pictures of him and his ducky, and he will hunt down all the monster who saw it to save face. The game is very silly and original. If you think I'm exagerating, the first vehicle you get is a jetpack/drill that you can use to drill most enemies, carve through walls and use as a limited jetpack to move around. There also seems to be a lot of guns, although the demo only has the rocket launcher. Graphics and sounds are good, although the music is a bit tiresome after a while. Overall, looks pretty good, and I recommend trying out the demo if you like platformers.

Bit.Trip Runner is a retro running game. Basically all you do just over obstacles or holes and get power-ups. The different thing about the game is that power-ups and jumps change the pace of the music, which sounds great. I understand that there is more to the game, but I just couldn't stomach more than the beginning - the gameplay is that annoying to me. The soundtrack does have nice moments, though (got it from Humble Bundle 6).

I just tried the Castle Crashers demo. However, in my Sansung monitor, for the very first time in any game, all I get is Mode not Supported. I imagine it is using some weird resolution choice. I'm not willing to change my monitors around to try a demo, and also couldn't find any way to start on Windowed mode or change resolution in the game, so I'll just have to give up.

WizOrb is a very retro game - in fact it seems to be a mix of Arkanoid and 80s RPGs. Both graphics and sounds are quite authentic - they really look and sound from the 80s. However, that is not at all fun. I have played a few Arkanoid/breakout games over the last few years, but usually they had something that made them more fun - such as nice physics. That is not the case with WizOrb and to me, it is just annoying.

Korval's Game , by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, is a SF/fantasy novel that takes place in the Liaden Universe. I have reviewed a couple of previous novels in the series ( Agent of Change  and  The Dragon Variation  . I have also read Mouse and Dragon, but neglected to review it), and I liked them both. Korval's Game takes place just after the events in Agent of Change, where The Department of the Interior of Liaden has decided to attack Korval and take over Liaden Government. I found this to be the best in the series, by far. Whereas most where romance novels with SF and battles thrown in, here the battles are more to the center. Pat Rin - which was a very minor character in the other books - has a nice side story which could almost be a separate novel, and ends up as a major player. It is recommended that you read the other book in the series first. It is probably not strictly necessary, but it would probably help to understand what was going on. The final ba...

Family Ties is the new DLC for Orcs Must Die 2! New Enemy: Ball and Chain It has 3 new levels - I'm not particularly impressed, and 3 new items - Stone Staff (almost exactly the freeze ring, but instead of freezing your enemies get turned to stone for a time), Teleportation Ring (mark a position and use it to teleport there, causes an explosion when you teleport). It has 2 new enemies, too - Ball and Chain and the Hobgoblin Healer. It is just amazing how buggy the Hobgoblin healer is here - he just stops animating and pops forwards, like in an old 2D game from the 80s. The jar of ghosts is cute - its passive power frightens nearby attackers, while the active power can make whole mobs turn back. So far, not impressed, but not so bad for US$4. I'll update as I play more.

Borderlands 2 is the sequel to Borderlands. As in many games today, it feels a bit more like an extension than a sequel. The story is pretty much the same, as is the graphic style and guns (the ice bits do look pretty nice, though). Since I played Borderlands a while ago, I don't exactly recall how the inventory system worked, but I really feel it was less annoying than the one in Borderlands 2. The silly 3D effect when selecting guns is very annoying. I only played for a couple of hours (Steam buggily says a minute), but it looks pretty good, even with the lack of major innovations. The quests are a bit silly, true, but they play style is still pretty fun. The number one complaint I had on Borderlands is still here - if you wipe out a whole town of enemies and come back 5 minutes later... They are all back. That is particularly aggravating as you cautiously enter a place, kill everyone, and as you finished your quest and you are leaving, they are all back and shooting at y...

Beware Planet Earth! is a tower-defense game. You use several lackluster, classical tower types to to stop aliens from abducting cows. The basic towers are shooters, freezers, mines and cash generators (cogs, in this case) . You also get an alien zapper. The graphics are pretty good, albeit to the cutesy style, and sound and music are acceptable. I don't really enjoy the gameplay, and in a sense it feels a lot like a time management game. Overall, I recommend that if you are interested, you should check the demo first. But probably this game is not worth your time either.

When I finished reading Frozen Heat  - the latest on the Nikki Heat series - I was surprised to see the Derrick Storm short stories on the list of suggestions. Since I have enjoyed all books in the Heat series, I imagine that the Derrick Storm would be fun too and bought it on the spot. A Brewing Storm: A Derrick Storm Short - by Richard Castle tells a story with Derrick Storm - the ex-CIA operator, private detective that is mentioned as the major character in Castle's books, and the he had killed as the TV series started. The story was good, involving a kidnapping (with elements from several episodes of the Castle TV series) with much more behind it than meets the eye. What is frustrating is the obvious laziness of the ghost writers (or the editor/publishers). Instead of pretending to be a real series instead of a book cut into 3 parts, the book just ends abruptly. I feel it would have been much friendly to put at least a token ending while leaving the important threads...

I am Number Four: The Lost Files: The Fallen Legacies is another book in The Lost Files sub-series. Like many of those, it is very short and contains very little in the way of a story. This one covers the three Lorien who were killed before the events (and also during the start of) on I am Number Four. Curiously enough, it is mostly through the eyes of a teen Mogadorian. That is a classic teen angle (i.e.: the enemy isn't so bad if you see them through their own eyes) but I can't help but think that it is a silly move to take at this point, given how plain they have kept villains so far. Overall, not too bad, but certainly not good.

Frozen Heat, by Richard Castle, is the latest book in the Nikki Heat series. I have read them all, and I think that this is the best one so far. A new murder has leads to the murder on Nikki's mother, and to surprising revelations about her past. Major points to another Firefly reference (probably wouldn't have noticed if it wasn't for a obvious dig by Rook) and several minor Castle references. Pretty good, recommended for fans of the series.

Torchlight is a top-down RPG. It plays like most of the kind, although the pet system - which has your dog or cat attacking enemies, evolving through being fed, and most cool of all, going to town to sell stuff for you is as far as I know unique. Graphics and story are OK, although the music is a bit boring after a while. Gameplay is OK for me - I imagine if I hadn't been playing Guild Wars 2 lately I would be less annoyed at it. Using attack and walk on the left button means that you keep walking into enemies even when you have a ranged weapon, and did not want to walk at all. Overall, good if you like RPGs and it has a great price if you get it as part of the Humble Indie Bundle 6. Otherwise, personally I wouldn't bother.

I reviewed pretty much everything in the new Humble Indie Bundle 6 in the past -  Shatter ,  Rochard ,  Vessel  and  SPAZ  . To keep things short, I liked Shatter and Rochard a lot, Vessel and SPAZ are OK but I wouldn't have bought them outside the bundle. Here is my new review of Dustforce . (If you like platformers with wall jumping, check it out) I'll update this post when I play and review Torchlight. Update: I have reviewed Torchlight  . My opinion - worth getting as part of the bundle. My overall opinion is that you probably should get the bundle, right now! It is great value and you are helping charities. Note that you also get the soundtracks, some of which are pretty good. As usual, you can get the bundle at www.HumbleBundle.com  .

Dustforce is quite unusual in theme - a cleaning game. While that probably has been done in the past, it is not exactly commonplace. The actual cleaning is a variation on Z and few other platformers. Essentially you go around the levels as fast as you can, running, sliding, jumping, wall jumping and walking on ceilings... to clean leaves. There are also animals covered in leaves (I played the Forest levels) that you need to "attack" with your broom to clean them. The game looks nice and the sound and music has a classic feel to it, but it is good enough. I didn't expect to like the gameplay (not a platformer fan), but it is kind of fun. Recommended for fans of the genre, specially if you can get it as part of the Humble Indie Bundle 6  . You can pay whatever you want for the bundle, but it must be more than the average to get Dustforce. I have actually reviewed all the games in the bundle other than Torchlight in the past - Shatter , Rochard , Vessel  and  SPAZ ...

Dynamic Jack is a very old school top-down game - with nice, current light effects. The gameplay is simple but interesting - you have an unlimited number of bombs, but no other weapons. You use these bombs to cross between places as well as kill enemies and destroy barriers. There are the mandatory keycards and time bonuses spread around, too. Overall, the gameplay seems OK. The demo has only a single level, though.

Intrusion 2 is an old school platformer shoot-and-run, with OK physics thrown in. I have only played the demo. Graphics and sounds are OK. The music is repetitive enough to be annoying. There are a few minor puzzles using physics so far - mostly moving rocks or logs so you can jump or pass. The gameplay is OK, and I imagine fans of platformers (I'm not) might like it. I recommend trying out the demo before buying.

  The Agent Gambit is another book in the Liaden Universe (I have previously read and reviewed The Dragon Variation ).   It focus on Val Con, from clan Korval, which is an Agent of Change - the term for a spy used by the Liaden ultra-secret department of the interior. They have very special training, including a mind tool called The Loop, and are very dangerous.   Val Con meets with a mercenary in trouble (from which goes to the somewhat excessive romantic theme in all these Liaden novels, it seems), and proceeds to get in trouble himself.   Interesting introdution to the Clutch (another race of aliens), as well as getting lost in a backwards planet - usually good fodder for SF.    Maybe a little too much time spent in the mind problems of Val Con caused by The Loop, but overall pretty good. I'm quite interested in seeing what will happen next to Clan Korval following the events in this book. Available on Baen, DRM-free

Containment - The Zombie Puzzler, is an interesting match puzzle game. Instead of colored blocks, you have zombies and several "colors" of humans - representing scientists, soldiers, cops or punks. You use these to surround the zombies, which are then killed by the humans. You also get a few toys on the ways - sniper shots, grenades, suits resistant to zombie attacks, Molotov cocktails and big objects to drop on them. The campaign does a pretty good job of teaching the basics of the game. It only last about half an hour - after that you have survival mode - which has several "blocks" of zombies which you must take on. You have to restart the whole survival block at once - I had to once I was on block 20 of 20 blocks, and I was quite annoyed! For some weird reason, in the survival mode there are also witches (!?!?!). They just block the path (and require containment with any other zombies), but don't infect the humans. The real weak points of the game are...

I got Great Big War Game on the first day, but the only thing I got when running was the icon on the taskbar and no mouse control in the main screen till closing the game through the task manager. I did find a way to run it on the Steam forums, though - just set the main monitor to 59hz. On Windows 7, just: 1) Right-click on the desktop and choose Screen Resolution 2) Click on Advanced Settings for your main monitor 3) Click on the monitor tab. 4) On monitor settings, there should be a Screen Refresh Rate. Mine only goes to 59 or 60hz. Setting this to 59hz and clicking on Apply solved my problem. I also reviewed the game .

Guild Wars 2 is an MMORPG that continues where Guild Wars stops. Both have a nice "feature" which is no monthly fee, just a flat price. I have very little experience with MMORPGs. I have played a few of the free ones - but only for half an hour each. Most MMORPGs feel incredibly boring to me. The basic style is annoying enough (I like FPS and RTS more), and the incredibly repetitive quests (kill N of these, find N of these, etc) are quite common. What I have played was Tabula Rasa - really nice story, really boring quests, buggy and Guild Wars - got sidetracked after a little while - remember as pleasant. Guild Wars 2 has a loader that downloads everything - about 20 GB. No complaints, though, as it was VERY fast and maxed out my 20MB/s connection. Graphics are great for vistas. Actual people are great designs, from the faces, shapes to the clothes. There isn't a basic tutorial - something I've come to expect in most games. It is probably a good idea to read...

I just got the Fire and Water Booster Pack for Orcs Must Die! 2. I am not sure if I should be annoyed at getting hit for more and more DLC - a few weeks after the game was released - or pleased at the extra content available. Right now, I'm tending toward the later. Fire and Water includes 3 new levels, 3 additional Endless Mode conversions, 3 new traps (Dart Spitter, Web Spinner, Floor Portal) and 2 new enemies. The Dart Spitter looks interesting when it works (spinning and sending darts everywhere). One cool upgrade it has is that it can charm enemies sometimes. Still haven't seen it happen, though. The Floor Portal should be useful (although probably bad for regular levels, since you will probably lose skulls for going over par time). The levels seem OK, but nothing special. The fire enemies are fairly generic, except for the Fireling that they let out when they die (2 or 4). These chase you and explode, setting you on fire. They can each take a full blast of the i...

I recently installed VirtualBox (because of a class ). Suddenly when I started VMWare, the network connection didn't work anymore. After installing, uninstalling and installing VMWare tools (which always seems to hang at the end of a install, which definitely DIDN'T help), I did a search for conflicts on the web and figured out the problem (and solution). Just go to VMWare, Edit, Virtual Network Editor. Check which External connection your Bridged networks are using. In my case, it was on automatic. Just switching from Automatic to my PCI controller solved the problem. Pretty lucky, too, because I was about to upgrade VMWare...

I got Great Big War Game on the first day, but the only thing I got when running was the icon on the taskbar and no mouse control in the main screen till closing the game through the task manager. See my post on how I solved the problem here . Great Big War Game is a very much simplified and turn-based version of a RTS. You have the same basic elements - several fighting units with different purposes, buildings that can create units and vehicles (among other purposes), and places to get money. The big difference is that all the buildings are pre-placed, and this is turn-based. Graphics are OK for the cutesy style, and sound is adequate. The character voices are a bit annoying, but at least they have a few different phrases. Music is very annoying and repetitive. Gameplay is acceptable, although it feels too simplified, and more adequate for tablets and smartphones. The interface is quite annoying - for example, creating an unit pops a whole new screen instead of doing it in...

The Rise of Nine is the third book in the main line of the Lorien Legacies (there is also The Lost Files books). The story continues from book 2, and Four and Nine are still looking for Sam. The other group is going to India to find another of the 9. As usual, a number of battles ensue (how the Mogs find them? good question), where everyone of the main cast almost nearly dies (possibly a spoiler following - should be obvious by now, though) but in the end escapes unscathed. And new legacies show up. Good, simple fun. Recommended for fans of the series.

Intergalactic Medicine Show issue 27 was - as I usually start these reviews - good but not great. By a thread - by Flávio Medeiros Jr., was the biggest surprise. It is an alternate history story of a cold war between the English/US and France, with the US dirigible fleet and french submarine fleet (lead by Admiral Nemo!) as the main combatants - you can  read it for free  .

The Dragon Variation, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, is a set of 3 stories set on the Liaden Universe. I don't think I ever heard of the Liaden universe before this book, but it came with a Webscription pack. As usual, I just dump all of them on my smartphone and whenever I finish all obviously interesting books, I look around at what else is available. These are quite on the side of love stories, but they were still good and quite enjoyable, even though the details of the universe's back story are a little confusing. There is also a mix of magic with the SF, but it works well enough. Recommended, and available DRM-free at Baen .

Tiny Troopers is a top-down shooter. The graphics are very good, although the cutesy style might be annoying to some (it certainly is to me). I understand it originally was an iPhone game, and it really shows in the gameplay. It is quite simple - right-click at your enemy to shoot, left-click to move. You also get some extras such as grenades, med packs and more, and you can order them using points, as well as a lot of stuff before a level (upgrades for armor, range, fire rate, as well as specialists with grenades or heavy weapons). I really, really hate it. I don't think I have ever reviewed a game I disliked so much. Everything is a said in an annoying cutesy style - and quite repetitive. The music is repetitive. The gameplay is really no fun at all to me. Not recommended. At all.

Tower Wars is another 3D Tower Defense game. I can't say that there is much distinctive about this one, but it does have a "reverse" TD built in. In the general game, you have to build towers to stop the enemies. The game is built so that you can use mazes to slow down the advance, as well as enable towers to do damage on both sides. You have the typical tower types - arrow, cannons, bombs, fire, electrical, etc. Towers can be upgraded and sold. Meanwhile, you should be deploying you own armies to destroy the enemy castle. You have an interesting mix of soldiers, including grunts, healers, shield, etc. These are unlocked for money (both gold and battle points, which you get by having soldiers in enemy areas). You have a ton of small upgrades for units, including health, armor, etc as well as deployment helpers, such as extra slots and the ability to release soldiers faster. This game mode is multiplayer only - I'm really not sure why. The game does create towers...

Hero Academy is a turn-based tactical fight game. There are a number of annoying things, including: - Forced windowed mode. No full screen. - Pauses on reacting to commands with no visual feedback whatever, or an hourglass icon starting a few seconds later. - Forced login on Robot's site. - No real single player mode. You'd think that they would be able to implement an AI for a game this simple, but apparently not. There is a set of challenges, but that is quite different from the game, and somewhat annoying. Overall, really not recommended.

To be honest, I only barely remember the 96 Death Rally. The 2012 remake is pretty nice, though. It is a top-down view race with plenty of weapons. And as usual, you can upgrade cars, armor, speed, weapons and earn extra tracks. Guns include a regular, infinite ammo generic gun, and then goes through shotguns, machine guns, sniper guns, flamethrowers, missile swarms and missiles. You can also unlock extras such as special bumpers and laser sights. You unlock extra gear, vehicles and tracks by collecting pieces during the game. I really like it. In the beginning, It isn't easy to win the race at first, but just finishing gets you upgrade money, and destroying other cars get you much more. You also get proposals such as driving a better car or gun for half of your earning, or killing a specific player. There is a mild attempt at an story, presented at the start and spots (you are a racer caught by a cop, and have to infiltrate the Death Rally to catch The Adversary). Th...