STG's

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 .