STG's

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  .