STG's

The Rhesus Chart - by Charles Stross - was another excellent entry in the Laundry series. I read this on release, but this was months ago, so I'm just going to say that I really enjoyed it, and I really want to see what the follow up for this will be!

Broforce is an interesting retro 2D platform shooter. You play as several 80s movies characters, such as Rambo, Ripley from Alien, Robocop, TimeCop, MacGyiver (one of the best - throws explosives), etc, etc. Each has their own different guns and skills. And every time you die or free another one (they are in cages around the levels) you switch. It is still an Early Access game, and since it is been this way for so long, I'm not sure if there will ever an official release, but it is playable now. The coolest part is how explosions and fires can destroy pretty much everything. There are plenty of user maps available, too. The most annoying thing I can think of about it is that your firing range can vary a lot from characters to character, and can be a lot less than your enemies. Overall, pretty much recommend for the price.

Space Run is an interesting variation on Tower Defense (TD) - you design a ship that has to quickly cruise through a set of pirates and asteroids to make a delivery. You get a few variations on guns, engines and shields, that are upgraded as the levels go, and you also get to re-do levels to get more money (although unlocks require using the max stars on each level instead). Difficulty increases sharply on replays. Graphics are reasonably good, and playability is good on the first few levels, but gets a little annoying later. Unlike most TD games, you often have to rotate your guns or activated some special items, but you don't have any way to pause. Overall, pretty good, but ultimately can be a little frustrating.

Plague Inc: Evolved is an interesting sim game where you try to make as much damage to the world as possible as choosing the best place to start and the right genes to make a dangerous disease. It is still on Early Access (i.e.: beta), but it is still pretty fun. I last played several months ago so it has several new features, but I found it already somewhat interesting for the price.

Desktop Dungeons is an interesting roguelike with retro graphics in which levels almost feel like a puzzle. Mostly you go around fighting enemies (that do not move at all). You get a nice prediction of what will happen on your next attack, and can go around walking through undiscovered tiles to regain health. You will slowly improve your level so that you can kill the harder enemies in the maze. It can be pretty though since the difficulty is calculated so that you will use the spells and special actions on a nearly exact manner. It ends up being a bit too tough for me, otherwise I would consider it to be quite fun.

IonBall 2 is an interesting Arkanoid clone, with a spaceship theme and plenty of guns and upgrades. It has some interesting semi-original ideas, and wildly hectic gameplay. The one major issue I (and a lot of people, just see other reviews) have with it is that the effects can make it very hard to keep track of the ball. Other than that, very enjoyable.

Drunken Robot is a bullet hell FPS with procedurally generated graphics. It is almost good, but personally I didn't enjoy it at all.

Luftrausers is an interesting, retro styled shooter. You command a ship fighting other planes and small to massive ships on full bullet hell mode. The interesting twists is that there achievements you can fulfill that gets you new parts, which you can use to customize your plane. For example, you can have a five shot spray gun, a laser, an engine that works by shooting behind you, extra armor, etc. Overall, nice, but I only enjoy it for small breaks.

Steel World, by B.V. Larson, is a sequel to Dust World, an SF Military title. In the universe of the series, humans are a minor player in a galaxy filled with aliens, and can only earn galactic credits with their mercenaries. In this one, the mercs go what is called Tech World - an usually cushy job running security on a space station filled with alien tech that as always for the series, goes to a terrible mess. Overall, pretty good, and another very interesting setup for the continuation of the series.

Dust World, by B.V. Larson, is a sequel to Steel World, an SF Military title. In the universe of the series, humans are a minor player in a galaxy filled with aliens, and can only earn galactic credits with their mercenaries. Overall, pretty good, and a very interesting setup for the continuation of the series.

The Curve of the Earth, by Simon Morden, is the fourth book in the Petrovitch series. Overall, it is good and I'd recommend it if you already read the first 3 and wanted more. But it wasn't nearly as good as them. Nice setup in the ending for future stories, though.

The Petrovitch Trilogy, by Simon Morden, collects the first three novels in the SF series. The books take place in a post apocalyptic London where a lot of the world has fallen into anarchy. The main character is Samuil Petrovitch, which is a genius physicist who is also pretty good as a general. There is also plenty of AI consequences, some nice cyberware tech and some bits that reminded me of Dune (the blind and still seeing bit, particularly). I've read this months ago, so I will only share my general impression, which is that this was pretty good and well worth reading for SF fans.

Risk of Rain is an action platformer. It has random spawning enemies, retro graphics, and roguelike elements. It is fairly hard, and there are several interesting items you can purchase spread randomly around the game. The soundtrack has some pretty good tracks (mixed with some other I didn't care for). Overall, I don't like it. I feel it'd be nicer if there was a sense of progression between games (such as Rogue Legacy). Of course, I am not a big fan of platformers.

Steel World , by B. V. Larson , is a military SF book and the first on the Undying Mercenaries series. Steel World use some common themes in military SF - aliens came, and for some reason or other humans are now fighting, using a mix of human tech and tech that was reverse engineered/bought/stolen - usually for the fate of mankind. In this particular case, aliens got the humans to enroll in a galactic empire, and the only thing we could contribute with were mercenaries. The undying part is also not uncommon but fairly well employed - they can clone both your body and the content of your mind right to the point you die. The story comes from the perspective of James McGill, born in 2099 and who discovered that his only real option after being kicked out of the university is joining the mercenaries. On his first mission, he ends up in a routine campaign in the Steel World - which contains various species of dinosaur like sentient beings of various levels of intelligence which are co...

This is not a game - by Walter Jon Williams - is a nice little thriller about alternate reality games. It was nice to see how the elements of the game and real life were weaved, and there is a mild touch of AI in the plot (quite frankly I thought it would turn out very differently). Overall, quite enjoyable, and I'm reading the sequel (Deep State) right now.

When I heard about The Abyss Beyond Dreams - by Peter F. Hamilton - I knew I'd had to get it. I'm huge fan of the author, and I specially like the CommonWealth novels. Granted, I usually don't enjoy the Void parts as much as the high-tech ones. Thankfully, there is less to complain here, as a big part of the plot involves Nigel Sheldon's clone entering the void, with the help of the Raiel to try and destroy it from within - obviously for those who read it, this takes place before the end of the original Void trilogy. Overall, very good and strongly recommended for all fans of the Void trilogy. I can't wait for the sequel!

Dreamships - by Melissa Scott - is an SF cyberpunk book. In the book's universe, humankind spread through other worlds using the Drive, a kind of hyperspace that requires pilots to have implants and AIs that helps them (very cyberpunk, of course). Now people are starting to believe that one of those AIs is alive, but they are willing to fight for its rights... while other humans have no rights at all. Overall, the book was OK, but in some parts you really feel its age (1992) - for example, no wireless connections. Funnily enough, I already read the sequel back in the 90s but I didn't realize it. I only got this book as part of a StoryBundle cyberpunk bundle.

Exo: A Novel (Jumper) - by Steven Gould - is the latest book in the Jumper series - where a group of people can teleport (Jump) at will using their minds. This time around, Cent has her sights much higher - into space. There was very little hard SF in the previous Jumper books, but I just loved the way the ideas and tech for the jumper space program were developed throughout the book. Very good, this is the one I liked the most in the series so far.

The Expandabros is pure marketing genius - a special version of Broforce tailored to have special characters based on The Expendables 3 as well as vague references on the actual levels. Broforce (which is early access which is mostly why I didn't review it) is an interesting 2D platform retro title where you play as one of many action heroes (bros). As you go on, you can release other bros, which changes which character you play as well as unlocks new ones. Actual play is in the form a shooter, with pretty cool explosions and destructible terrain. The Expandabros is just like that, except with just with the characters of Expendables 3, and also free. My main peeve with both games is that the weapons of each bro are different, and sometimes you will get into annoying situations (such as facing an enemy with a long shot while only having a sword). Overall, though, this game is very much worth trying, specially since it is free.

OTTTD is a Tower Defense (TD) game. I played the demo only. The main twist between OTTTD and generic TD is that you have heroes, which you have to command around the battlefield. It starts with an engineer (who can fix towers) and continues with a soldier, sniper, etc. You can not only get them general upgrades from a large skill tower, but also buy armor and weapons upgrades. Towers are more or less the usual types - cannons, rockets, precision, stunners, etc. Overall, I think the towers upgrade should be clearer in-game, and sometimes I felt the interface to be clumsy (possibly from its mobile game origins?). Gameplay was almost good enough to make it great, but in the end it was just midly entertaining for me.

American Craftsmen, by Tom Doyle, is another fantasy book with a popular theme - military fantasy where the military has super or magical powers. In this world, there are people with magical powers (the main character - Dale Morton - has the ever popular weather powers, among minor others). Those are required to work for their countries or be considered renegades and hunted down. Real magic is not know to the public. Dale is cursed during a mission, and ends up in a major conspiracy against all the magical families. Pretty nice, with plenty of fun battles and twists in the story.

Revenge of Seven is another SF/fantasy book in the very long (by now) I am Number Four series. These each consist of small volumes with novels and smaller volumes with short stories. The story consists of a group of alien superheroes fighting evil aliens who apparently are resource hungry and don't recycle (there seems to be a hidden message here :-) ). In this installment, there are the usual battles, but at last the real endgame with Lorien is revealed (although the very end is probably guessable by anyone from the middle of the book). Of course following this, the book ends. Argh. Still good if you are following the series.

Lock In - by John Scalzi - is a SF book that takes place in a world where a disease (Haden) locked in millions of people inside their bodies. Technology was created that allows them to remotely control robot bodies or live in a VR world (there is a short prequel -  Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden’s Syndrome  - the writing style is unrelated to Lock in). I've read the novella, which had a teaser of this book. I remember being quite disappointed when I realized it was not available yet. It was as good as I thought it would be. What takes place is a series of murders, viewed through a Haden FBI agent, which just started on the job. Very much recommended for SF fans.

Aerena is a turn-based strategy game, with a steampunk theme. You command a ship and a group of champions, which attack another ship and champions. Action is turn based, and each champion has different attack styles, as well as special attacks. Your ship can also attack directly with a small number of shells, which are available in a few types. Graphics are great, but I didn't really like the gameplay. I did like this kind of turn based battle in the past, but not here.

Super Trench Attack! is a retro shooter, with an isometric view. Graphics and sounds are fairly adequate for the retro theme. On the first missions and training, your only actions are shooting (you can have several guns and start with a pistol and a rifle), and throwing grenades. Shooting can be regular, headshot or footshot (just aim at the head or feet). There is an inventory system and a XP system. The combat and gameplay isn't particularly bad, but I didn't find it good enough to keep playing. If it seems interesting to you, I recommend you try the demo first.

The A.I. War Book One: The Big Boost - by Daniel Keys Moran - is the sequel to The Last Dancer and part of Tales of Continuing Time. This follows part of Trent's exploit, very long after he left Earth. Unlike The Last Dancer, this one is all about Trent - which I really prefer. Plenty of battles with the crazy plans that only Trent could get away with. I'd like the Trent AI bit to be a little more explored, though. Very enjoyable, and I can't wait for the next volume (although given how long this one took, it probably won't be available anytime soon).

Freehold - by Willam Dietz, is an SF military book. The overall style of the book is quite common on older SF, but that doesn't make it less enjoyable. It has plenty of battles, both on ground and on space, with the usual clever tactics thrown in. There isn't a whole lot of character development, but that is filled up with action. Overall it feels a little short, but it is still plenty of fun.

Level Zero - by Jaron Lee Knuth - is the first book in the NextWorld series. It is SF mostly about VR (virtual reality) and AI (artificial intelligence). NextWorld is a VR world which is accessed using nanobots inside the user bodies. The VR world has everything - public education, clubs, shoppings, churches and games. This is a particularly nice (although being mostly hand-waving as far as tech goes) way to make up VR tech. It is certainly easier to imagine it being life-like versus the goggles and gloves on oh so many other VR books. As is so very very common in other VR stories, in the middle of a game world something happens and they can't log out. Not surprisingly, the excuse of why there isn't a better override is a little phony (i.e.: if your computer locking up could physically damage you, there would be a lot of people dying on a daily basis). Even if the basic theme isn't all that original, I really like VR game based stories, and this one is particularly ...

Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal is a tower defense game. It has 90s style graphics, that go somewhere from retro to slight embarrassing. However, it probably is THE BEST TOWER DEFENSE GAME I have ever played. Seriously, I can't remember enjoying any TD game anywhere near this, and I played a ton of them. The basic "monster" is quite a bit different than the usual fare. It is just a blue mass that keeps being generated from some points in the map. It will eventually find its way to your base (and probably much sooner than you'd think reasonable). Your mission is to build up to creeper generators and destroy them. There are plenty of weapons, shields, a power system that uses flat surfaces (bringing Perimeter to mind, of course). Landscape features are very important, and you have a terraforming tool (called TERP) that can have huge effects. You can make walls, make mountains plain, and make bridges into the creeper sea. Power is a huge deal. You have the re...

I have been playing Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal a lot, and I really like it. But one thing I discovered is that under some circumstances it will crash every single time I start it! The message is Oops! The game crashed. The crash report folder named "" next to game executable. The error log has the following: CSteamworks.dll caused an Access Violation (0xc0000005)   in module CSteamworks.dll at 0023:04f64c79. Fortunately, I figured a simple way to fix it. This happens every time after I hibernate my computer. If I just exit and start Steam again (the internal restart doesn't work), the problem disappear till next hibernate.

Transistor is a sci-fi RPG from the creators of Bastion. If you ever saw/played Bastion, you probably won't be surprised that the graphics are gorgeous. I don't think I ever bothered to get so many screenshots simply because of how good they look. Music and sound are great too. I can't tell you much about the story, because there isn't a lot of direct exposition and I'm not really sure what is going on. Gameplay is an isometric view, and includes a mixed real time/turn based combat that is fairly complex. It mixes "functions" (apparently it is a tron-like world or humans were digitized thing) that can be weapons (such as crash, bounce, etc), or powers that affect movement or stealth. They can be used directly or used to upgrade other functions - for example, crash upgraded with bounce makes the damage from crash bounce to other enemies. I haven't played that much, and frankly I find it a little weird without more information. I also had an asse...

Not really a review, more of a personal journal statement in case I forget about the game in an year or so (happens a lot more than I'd like). Graphics are very retro. That is ok, I like it. It is gameplay I really, really didn't like. It just doesn't work for me. Maybe I didn't try long enough, but I have something of a low threshold of patience for that.

The Last Dance, by Daniel Keys Moran, is the sequence to The Long Run  . It is still an SF book with AIs, telepaths and cyborgs, but feels fairly different from The Long Run. The largest focus is on Denice Castanaveras here. Trent does appear, but only for a short while. After the last book, Denice is still not know for what she is publicly, and now she is trying to find ways to help the world. Meanwhile someone finds a last dancer (one of the last from a race of people from another planet that turns out all humanity descended from), which causes America to raise up against the whole Unification. I still enjoyed the book, but part of it seemed to drag a bit for me. Recommended but only if you liked the first ones.

The Long Run - by Daniel Keys Moran - is the sequel to Emerald Eyes - an awesome SF book with AIs, telepaths and cyborgs. It is certainly one of my favorites. But by the time I read it, The Long Run wasn't available anywhere. So I had to settle for a script from the author's site (pretty good too, btw). A few days ago I decided to check Amazon again, and it was available for Kindle! Naturally, I bought it, stopped whatever I was doing and went to read it. It is pretty much the same story as the script, just with more details, and very enjoyable. It is amazing how well it aged given it was written in 89! Most of the tech still sounds believable - and still is beyond us (with the exception of the storage - 1TB chips was much more impressive back before you could buy a pen drive this size!). The main story ( spoiler alert , specially if you might read the previous book) is from Trent Castanaveras - son of telepaths and genetically designed to be faster, smarter, and though...

Spell or High Water, by Scott Meyer, is the sequel to Off to Be The Wizard  - where a hacker discovers a mysterious file (repository1-c.txt - yes, I did Google it just in case :-)  ) that just so happens to store data about everyone in the universe - and allows reality being changed too. With this they are able to become true wizards. This sequel takes place 2 months after the end of the first. Martin is now a wizard on his own, and he and Phillip are invited to Atlantis for a summit - but strange events are occurring there... Meanwhile, Jimmy is back on his present after being banished, trying to figure out a way to get access to the file and give the other wizards what they deserve. Overall, the book was fun, although not on the same level of the first one. There are a lot of funny bits, action, and I really liked the twist on Jimmy's ending. I eagerly wait further sequels. Still very much recommended, just start with  Off to Be The Wizard  .

Impulse is the third book in the Jumper series, by Steven Gould. The story takes place many years after the events in Reflex. Davy and Millie had a kid, Cent, who is now 16 and completely isolated. But now she learned she can jump... This one is not as god as reflex overall, and it is much more of a Young Adult book. It is still fun, and I liked the new twists they added to extra Jumper powers, as well as the focus on Davy and Millie's projects helping around the world.

Towers of Guns is an interesting rogue-like FPS, where you enter rooms with random enemies and traps. Also like most rogue-likes, if you die, you die. No save games, no second chances. The pace can be pretty hectic, as you dodge cannon balls, bombs, flying saws, etc.  It feels very old school in that regard. There are a few guns you can get  (unfortunately, I have just unlocked the easier few) and several weird items, such as extra weapons, teleporter belts, etc. You can also upgrade a ton of stats, including damage, speed, jump - either by drops or by buying them around with coins found around the levels. My biggest is complain is that after the initial spawn, enemies will still spawn from nowhere, specially on boss rooms. I find that quite annoying, as I am always suddenly getting hurt while I was focusing on the boss (and extra health is really hard to find). There is a back story, but it consists of some text and an icon at the beginning of each level. Cute, but ...

Reflex is the second book in the Jumper series, by Steven Gould. This was a great sequel to Jumper. We learn a lot more about how Jumping works - and how someone can learn to teleport. I also really liked the mechanism the author created to lock up a jumper while still using him as an agent, and how Millie goes on to rescue him. Very much recommended if you liked the first book.

Jumper is an SF Book by Steven Gould, that was later adapted into a very different movie. The main topic here is the protagonist Davy and his teleportation power. The events on the start of the book that start him teleporting are quite a little nastier than the movie, and some of the teleportation rules are different. From the middle to the end things go completely different. I am being as generic as I can to avoid spoilers... There are groups chasing him on both cases, but completely different ones. And instead of just trying to stay alive, Davy's activities on the book are quite different. Overall, recommended. There are also sequels to this book, which I look forward to read.

Honor Among Thieves: Star Wars (Empire and Rebellion) is a book by James S.A. Corey on the Star Wars universe. The book takes place just after the Star Wars was destroyed, and is mostly from Han's point of view of a mission involving an ancient alien superweapon (which seems to be James SA Corey's specialty). Overall, I liked it. I never read any of the Star Wars novel, and it is fun to see into the space between the movies with characters I know well.

Influent is an interesting edutainment title for learning languages. The basic principle is that you walk around an apartment, clicking on items to add them to your vocabulary list. Then at every ten items, you get quizzed on them, and have to find them and click on them (or on the flight mode, shoot them). The idea is that this works as a more fun version of SRS (Spaced Repetition System) to learn words. And I'd say it probably works, although you do have to remember two things in the game - what the word means and where you can find it at the apartment! There is more to the game than that - there are also adjectives, alternate and verbs associated with objects. You can choose from a few languages (the UI is just in English and Japonese, though), but only the first comes with the purchase of the game - all others must be bought as DLC. Overall, the graphics, sound and music are adequate, and I believe that the learning works well, although of course the words are limi...

I just finished Influx, by Daniel Suarez. A scientist discovers how to make gravity mirrors, but then a secret government agency that supresses disruptive advanced technology - and they make him disappear. But he is going to fight back. This was pretty good. I have liked other Daniel Suarez books - such as Daemon and the sequel Freedom , and while this one doesn't really reach their levels (the tech in Daemon seems so very feasible!), I really enjoyed the tech he made up for the book and the final battle. Some bits in the middle were a bit too tense for me, and the dystopic torture was particularly nasty, though. Overall, very much recommended.

HomeComing was the hardest mission on CastleStorm when I first played it. You only play as the hero, which you can't upgrade before winning it. The solution to win it is simple - switch to normal or casual for the mission, and remember to used ranged attacks as much as possible. If you want to, you can then upgrade the hero and go back to win on harder modes - it will be much easier!

Mind's Eye, by Douglas E. Richards is an SF thriller where Nick Hall, awakes with no memory - and discovers that he can read minds - and that a group of assassins are trying to kill him. The threat of the technology present in the ending seems very real (since everything seems to be hackable), but the origin of the threat (can't say more without a major spoiler) does seem a little silly in context. Kudos for the author for having the female lead be cute, not beautiful. Feels refreshing compared to most books. Pretty good, and a real page turner. Recommended.

CastleStorm is a mix of two very common flash game "genres" - destroy the enemy's castle using projectiles (also like Angry Birds) and by sending a mix of troops to stop the enemy troops. Putting it like that, it sounds a bit lame, but it turned out very well on CastleStorm. You have a lot of projectiles, starting with a simple ballista and progressing through explosives, big stones and sheeps with self-propulsion. You also get a few spells, such as teleporting your hero in the battle, healing and attacking. All of that is mixed in with plenty of upgrades and a castle editor that allows you to put in rooms to create new troop types, as well as getting you nice bonuses - such as faster troop creations, stronger walls, etc. I'm not a big fan of the editor, which is a little annoying. And bizarrely, your saved campaign games start with the plain castle, not your latest one. You have to load the latest one, save it again, and then quite the editor to continue. ...

Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, is an hilarious fantasy comedy about the apocalypse. I have been a fan of both of them for a while, specially Pratchett for the Discworld series (which I still think is funnier). Recommended.

Pixeljunk Monster is a tower defense game. I hate it. I hate the way to select tower types - a ring, which makes sense on a controller, but is silly with a keyboard (there may be shortcuts, but I didn't see them on the instructions). I hate walking slowly gathering coins. I hate the monsters, which look silly, and not in a fun a way. I hate the graphics. I really hate the music - which is instantly awful then made worse by also being repetitive. The sounds are annoying. I have rarely had a game rub me the wrong way in so many ways at once, without it being about bugs. But no, here it is just the game design. Really not recommended.

Abaddon's Gate - by James S.A. Corey - is the third book in the Expanse series. The protomolecule built and deployed a large ring. Surprisingly, fear from each faction getting an advantage stopped anyone from entering it. Until a daredevil goes through with his ship... The book is a nice expansion on the series, with great action. My complaint is similar to the previous books in the series - it always feels to me that author is doing less than he could with the tech. In this book, it mostly deploy an inertia messing power, portals, and that is it. Underwhelming. Still, the pace of the human side of the story work well and it is still a page turner. It just feels like it is less than it should be.

PixelJunk Shooter is a 2D shooter that takes place in a cave using a ship. You fly the ship with standard WASD (absolute movement - not W as propulsion, which is what I expected - the way the made it is a lot easier to use), and shoot aiming with mouse (or keyboard arrow keys, which is probably usable but crappy). You right-click to grab objects - the people you are supposed to rescue, treasure, heat shields, and some very interesting alternate objects - such as an object that releases water when it bursts, or another that can absorb either lava or water and releases it later. Lava is the main hazard in the game, and the source of almost all puzzles. You can't touch it as it will overheat the ship and destroy instantly, and it also kills the astronauts. The only way to deal with it is dropping water on it, by destroying stone around water deposits or using the bulbs mentioned above. There are also some creatures that can attack, shoot pellets or lava at you. Overall, I li...

Ethan: Meteor Hunter is a platformer where you play a rat with special powers - freezing time and moving objects while time is frozen. Graphics and sound are adequate, but I didn't like the gameplay (I am not a big fan of platformers, though). Not bad, but not recommended either. Try the demo if you think you might like it.

The Floor is Jelly is an interesting 2D platformer with deformable floors and walls. It looks very nice, and the music is fitting. You mostly jump around, taking advantage of the jelly like consistency of the floor to get boosts if you jump at the right time. This also applies to walls. You use this to reach doors, skip the spikes and get the unlocks you need to get to the next level. However, while I get the mechanics of jumping around, I still don't enjoy them. So far me gameplay is fairly flat... and not fun at all. Not recommended, but your mileage may vary, specially if you are a platformer fan.

Caliban's War - by James S.A. Corey - is the second novel in The Expanse series that followed Leviathan Wakes. As the story starts, Venus has been taken over by the protomolecule, which is building something all over the surface. And soon enough Ganymede is in crisis and Earth and Mars are shooting at each other. There a number of parallels to the first book - Earth and Mars are on a on/off war pace, Holden is chasing another girl that is also important to the larger events that are unfolding, a larger outer planets settlement is messed up because of the protomolecule, etc. Still, the pace of the novel made me eager to keep following page after page to see how it went. And it ends in a pretty satisfying conclusion. Recommended. I am already reading the third book in the series...

Jupiter War - by Neal Asher - is the conclusion of the Owner trilogy, where a super genius gets enhanced with an implant, and takes over an asteroid/ship station to escape and fight a dystopic Earth government (not the current ones - an even worse unified one). In this volume, The Owner decides to escape the solar system, but Earth is not going to let him go without a fight... It was a very satisfying conclusion, and I feel it was even better than the first two parts. Great fights, great and reasonable new technology and a nice little twist in the Earth Dictator's story in the end. Of course, there is always the possibility of further sequels :-)

State of Decay is a 3rd-person view zombie game with interesting base building elements. I have to say I really like it. After a short bit in the start (with a reasonable tutorial), you go around killing zombies, getting resources, finding new people to add to your base and getting status with other bases. The basic mechanics are just great, and the fighting (which has shooting, beating zombies with several objects and stealth parts) , graphics and sounds are pretty good. You can also drive around, which is great to kill zombies but cars get damaged pretty quickly. The only problem I have is that it seems to lock up my computer some times. That is a big problem, which is why I haven't played it more. Overall, excellent concept and reasonably well executed.

Pixeljunk Eden is a bit of an art game. You basically jump around beautiful, organic looking structures destroying geometric enemies to unlock seeds, which grow more of the organic structures so that you can jump higher and eventually finish the level. It is certainly interesting and unique, but I didn't find the gameplay to be that fun, specially for more than a few minutes at a time.

I really enjoyed this. The overall start of the story is a somewhat common theme - the solar system is colonized (with mostly no magical tech, except maybe for a special fusion drive that is in itself a nice side story), and the powers (Earth, Mars, Belters) are on the edge against each other. Then something happens, and all hell breaks lose. The actual reason why all hell breaks loose is not that common, but really reminds me of Neal Asher 's books. Very good pacing and well kept suspense till the end, recommended.

For no good reason, I keep posting these early on every year. This year, almost every stat went down (counting my professional blog, restaurant blog and microsites): Posts: 152 (last year 232) Fiction Book Reviews: 39 (last year 51) Technical Book Reviews: 13 (last year 11) Game Reviews: 53 (last year 90) Visitors: 24712 (last year 33204 - this blog had some very successful reviews in 2012, so 2013 had a little more than half the traffic than in 2012 - all the others are actually doing better now) Overall, I am kind of OK with my posting habits, although I am fairly sure I completely skipped reviewing some books I read - and I do mind that. However, I am happy with the performance with my newest microsite, Directory Printer . Thanks for reading!