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Showing posts from 2013

The Oil Blue - PC Game Review

The Oil Blue is mostly a time management game. You have to take control of the machinery of abandoned oil rigs and produce oil. This is done by a mini game per oil machine type. One just consists of setting a speed and alternating cells to keep it going. Other requires pressing a pressure release from time to time, and guiding the drill to positions with oil. And so on. Meanwhile, you only have a tiny space for all that oil, so you need to sell it to make more room. The important thing is, you are not going through each machine. You have to control all of them at the same time. So you are constantly switching between screens to service each machine (plus selling the oil). To me, after the slower beginning this felt more like working against the interface than anything else. I imagine the game could be fun, but to me it felt more like work...

Dungeon of Elements - PC Game Review

Dungeon of Elements is pretty much Dr Mario with some extra elements, as far as I can see. Mostly, you get into battles in dungeons with elementals of 4 different types (and thus colors), which you can defeat by joining 4 of the same color - using capsules with alchemical formulations. You can also get weapons that can be used to defeat them directly. There is more to the game, but quite frankly I really couldn't bear to keep going till those parts showed up. For whatever reason, I thought it would play a little more like Puzzle Quest (which I did enjoy a lot), but for me it really fell flat. Really not recommended.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown - PC Game Review

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I actually played the original (1994) XCOM: Enemy Unknown as brand new. I imagine it was the first turn-based tactical game I ever played. And it was pretty good, although it was very, very complicated. I even made a trainer for it! (it just maxed out the stats of all your soldiers). The rest of the series had good and lame moments. Terror from the Deep was just a re-skin. Several other were utterly unplayable. I liked XCOM: Aftermath, however. The new, 2013 version is as good as the original, if not better. And the whole interface system is a whole lot easier - and arguably better. The new scheme, instead of a numeric bunch of hit points, just allows you to move a certain range and perform an action, or run to a farther place and end the turn for that character. Gone are the complexities of counting individual steps (and subtracting stance changes on both ends) to find out the best move. Or figuring out how to fit another alien body or weapon in your backpack (the tiny space in

Lawful Interception - Book Review

Lawful Interception is a novella by Cory Doctorow that take place just after Homeland . (as usual, Marcus Yallow fights corporations and the bought up government with cute tech that is either already available in real life or nearly there) If you liked the books, you will probably like this, and you can read it for free on Tor  . There is also a very nice pack of Tor stories you can get on Amazon for free  (it is available in other places such as iBooks too).

Kerbal Space Program - PC Game Review

Kerbal Space Program is a spaceship simulator. You can assemble many types of spaceships with many configurations, and then fly them. And subsequently crash them. Or even land them. Flying isn't very hard, and there are some nice tutorials. It is still in beta, but it is already quite fun. I do have random freezes in the sound and occasionally on the game, though. I have also played a simpler, 2D version for iPad which is quite fun - SimpleRockets. I believe it is based on KSP. Recommended if you like this kind of simulators.

Age of Empires 2 HD Review

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Age of Empires 2 HD is a relaunch of the old RTS classic with improved graphics. So, how does it look? Like an old game with improved graphics. If you expected it to look like a brand new game, you will be quite disappointed. That is particularly apparent on the animations, which can look a bit silly sometimes. But overall, if you are a fun of the original, you probably can't go wrong with a better looking version (which I imagine looks VERY dated now - and I understand there were problems even with wide screen modes). If you never played but you have played newer RTS games you might be a little bothered. It goes the classic RTS way of accumulating resources, and using them to build, create your army and upgrade everything.  Upgrades stops in the Imperial Age. One particularly lame move is that the start screen is messed up if you don't have the screen DPI (Font Sizes) on the default. And them they have the nerve to point you to a page (which opens in IE, no l

Homeland - Book Review

Homeland - by Cory Doctorow - is a sequel to Little Brother. Marcus Yallow gets a Wikileaks-style dump with thousands of documents - and if it is released it might change everything. As usual, Cory likes to go onto the limits of tech, with interesting effects, particularly on the protests. I got a little sad reading Aaron Swartz's afterword, though. He committed suicide early this year, just before the book release. Truly a great loss. Strongly recommended. You can download this for free on Cory's page , but I think it is worth paying for it to help him continue doing these free releases, so I got it on Amazon myself.

Equoid - Book Review

Equoid - by Charles Stross - is a novella that takes place in the Laundry universe. The laundry is a secret british agency that deals with Lovecraftian occult attacks. I wouldn't normally bother to review a novella (32 pages), but it is worth reading, specially if you like the Laundry series. This one is a tale about unicorns - who turn out to exist, sort of, and to be pure evil. You can get Equoid on Tor  for free.

Game Dev Tycoon - PC Game Review

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Game Dev Tycoon is a wonderful industry simulator for game development. These are not new - I remember playing a simple one in my 8-bit computer back in 88 and quite a few since then - but it is surprising how much fun this one is. You start up in a garage, and by choosing a few simple options per game you develop, you can build up to a major company. The system is very nice - you just pick a genre, topic, platform, rating and game engine (you also develop this). After that you pick some choices - how much time are you going to spend on graphics? What about AI? With these, together with the current trends, give a rating to your game, and these influence how many sales it will get. The rating The big office. Also, I don't bother with game names :-) You are also constantly researching new technologies to apply to your games, as well as training yourself and your employees. Graphics and sounds are simple but fit the theme perfectly. My only complaint is the ov

1984 - Book Review

While it is a big classic and its themes are constantly brought up (specially these days), I had never read 1984 , by George Orwell before. As many of you might have heard (even if you didn't read it), 1984 talks about an empire where citizens are under constant surveillance by the government, which isn't limited by laws, and which constantly reviews history. It is a very, very dark dystopia. It is hard to read the book and not see some disturbing parallels. Governments will keep track of you (in 1984 they only bothered with a smaller percentage of the population - Party members and up) not only through CCTV cameras, but also through your many, many electronic footprints. History can effectively be changed - for instance by having laws that only allow authorized biographies (such as in Brazil) - and also the present, by manipulating statistics (although I guess that might have been done throughout history) or by only supplying printing paper to certain newspapers (as happen

Batman: Arkham City - PC Game Review

I feel a bit silly reviewing  Batman: Arkham City, as it is such a well know game. However, that does fit on the minor function of public journal of this blog. Batman: Arkham City  is a sandbox game, where you are contained in a specific city area. You attack with cool moves you can upgrade, and can fly fast around the town in a completely non-feasable way, which nevertheless is very fun. Wait, was I describing Prototype  or Arkham City? Well, the description fits both equally. On a large scale, they feel very, very similar. And in fact, some of the parts I liked most is just flying around, using cover to take out enemies. The fight system on Batman (and boss battles) feel a little more console oriented, and less fun, though. Graphics and sounds are pretty good (although even with below top quality, sometimes it overwhelms my 2 year old PC), and most of the gameplay is fun. There are some mild puzzles, specially involving riddler's trophies, which unlock some special game

Pirate Cinema - Book Review

Pirate Cinema, by Cory Doctorow, is a politically heavy novel that takes place in the near future. (Mild spoilers below!) In this future, (or current present - I'm not really keeping track) downloading illegal materials in the UK can get you cut off the net. As people increasingly depend on net access, this can be very bad. And that is what happens to the main character, who loves making new movies out of existing footage. Getting cut off from the net really messes with his family, and he ends up running away from a tiny city to London. In London, he ends up as a homeless person, but makes new friends, meets a girl, and continues to make awesome mashups of older movies. Eventually they fight the new law that criminalize piracy (in pretty creative aways). Overall, it was a very enjoyable read, and I imagine it would help set opinions against criminalizing piracy and allowing reuse of existing material - if almost everyone that reads it didn't already agree. Also, it

Gas Guzzlers Extreme - PC Game Review

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Gas Guzzlers Extreme is a racing shooter. You start with a particularly lame car (after a single race with a well loaded, nice car), and as you win unlock more powerful cars, upgrades and weapons. Clearly nothing revolutionary, but driving feels fun and has OK physics. You can really feel the difference between driving on the road, desert and snow. Crashes and bumping off the road looks a little arcade-y, though. Weapons are OK, but don't think that you are going to get a nice shot and take someone out. With the shotgun, machine guns or rocket launchers it is going to take a while to kill any enemy. There is some big impact effects from hits of rockets or shotguns, though. (on regular settings, at least. There is an arcade mode, but I didn't try it yet) There are several tracks, as well as regular, no weapon races (boring!), the main races where you can use guns, and an elimination mode where the slowest car on each lap is removed. Of course, there are power-ups you ca

Voxatron - PC Game Review

Voxatron is a 3D shooter using voxels (volumetric pixels). These were quite popular in the early 90s, and I remember Comanche (one of the first games I played that had them) fondly. Right now Voxatron is an alpha, but it is still fun. The biggest contributor to that, is that shooting out parts of the map is part of the game (for example, you can shoot out a column to get objects on top). There are also several guns available, as well as explosives and a build gun that shoots persistent blocks. Looks and sound are very retro, but very adequate for the theme. The game is tiny - 15MB installed.

Eets Munchies - PC Game Review

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Eets Munchies is a puzzle game. It is currently in beta, I believe. The game goes in the tradition of Lemmings and so many others since. You must guide a character using some objects that are available on each level. In Eets Munchies case, you also have objects the you interact with, such as a whale that will suck Eets in and throw him on an arc. Graphics are very good, and sounds are adequate. I didn't particularly enjoy the gameplay - but then, this is a game genre where this is common for me.

Fez - PC Game Review

Fez is an interesting puzzle platformer. The unusual part is that you can rotate your world around, which you need to do to get cube shards - which are used to unlock doors. The visual and sound are full on retro, with some cute extra effects. The one thing that really annoys me is the use of controller only control hints (also, using Enter to go to menu, and using escape for a map!). I prefer to use the keyboard in almost all games, and you have to figure out the equivalent keyboard controls. Other than that, it is pretty nice.

Rocketbirds Hardboiled Chicken - PC Game Review

Rocketbirds Hardboiled Chicken is a neat action platformer. In this game, you are a chicken with a rocket pack, attacking some sort of albatross nation with an evil leader. Graphics are pretty good - specially so for the cut scenes - and music is pretty good too. Gameplay is OK - not bad, but I didn't feel it was particularly fun. There are regular platform levels - with minimal jump puzzles, at least as far as I played - where you mostly shoot around. There are also some section where you fly with your rocket pack. This game came with a Humble Bundle.

I am Number Four: The Fall Of Five - Book Review

I am Number Four: The Fall Of Five continues the series after the Dulce base escape. The newly joined group ends meeting up Five, with bad consequences. Pretty OK if you are keeping up with the series.

I Am Number Four: The Lost Files: The Forgotten Ones - Book Review

I Am Number Four: The Lost Files: The Forgotten Ones covers the fate of Adam after the attack of the Dulce base on the main book series. There is a minor interaction with the last current book of the series, as well as a minor introduction for events in the next (I presume). OK if you are already reading the series.

I Am Number Four: The Lost Files: The Last Days of Lorien - Book Review

I Am Number Four: The Lost Files: The Last Days of Lorien is another short book in the series that covers some of the life on Lorien, as viewed through Sandor - who eventually becomes the Cêpan for number nine. Pretty OK if you are already reading the series.

Stargate Atlantis: Legacy Series Book 3-6 Review

Given that these book are somewhat short and that I can't say very much without a ton of spoilers, there is little point in reviewing them individually. However, they were pretty good, with the last one ending on a major, satisfying battle, except for a very Deus Ex Machine sequence involving an escape. Nothing particularly surprising for Starglider Atlantis or TV series in general, but still a bit frustrating. Overall, the whole series read as a slightly short year of the series, and to me it was pretty good. Recommended for fans of the series.

Saturn's Children - Book Review

Saturn's Children, by Charles Stross, is an SF book earlier in the same universe of Neptune's Brood , which I reviewed a month ago. In that universe, humans have become extinct, but robots took over. These robots are built from human neural patterns - effectively humans on a different platform, because we never got AI right. The story is told from the perspective of a sex-bot (without clients, of course, as humans got extinct), that ends up turning into a spy. While somewhat interesting (and having plenty of funny moments), I felt this was the Stross book I enjoyed least over the years. It is acceptable, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Stargate Atlantis: The Lost - Book Review

Stargate Atlantis: The Lost is Book 2 in the Legacy Series. (Spoiler Alert!!!) It is about the search for Dr. McKay, who was kidnapped by the Wraith is the first book. The plot is divided between what is happening to Dr. McKay in the Hive ship, and the two teams searching for him - one in a negotiation with Todd, another with the Genii. Overall, it is perfectly nice and equivalent to a episode or two of the series - that is, there is a satisfying amount of action, but nothing wildly innovative as it goes. Recommended if you were a fan of the series.

Spelunky - PC Game Review

Spelunky is a rogue-like platformer, which features dynamic level construction and destructible areas. In principle, it sounds very nice. The graphics are OK, but I found the actual gameplay only so-so. The music is repetitive and annoying, and it seems to forget that I want to use the keyboard - so I have to use the controller or the mouse to reset every single time. Overall, not recommended.

Kudos 2 - PC Game Review

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Kudos 2 is a life sim. The first game I played in this genre (and as far as I know the first in the genre) was Jones In The Fast Lane, from Sierra, in 1990. Funnily enough, some aspects of the VGA graphics are probably as good as today, while there was actually more movement (although mostly in a game board format). Kudos 2 is similar in many aspects - you have a number of activities you can take, including work (required, every day of the week - you can choose your method to arrive, such as walking, bus, bycicle or car), solo activities (reading book, baths, cleaning, jogging, taking classes, etc) or activities with friends (eating at restaurant, bowling, museums and many more). Extra activities unlock during the game, and sometimes depending on what you buy (such as chess sets, video games, cars, etc). You can only have an activity per work day, and two in the weekends. You have a whole bunch of stats, with various effects, such as loneliness, happiness, kudos, excitement, etc

Stargate Atlantis: Homecoming - Book Review

Stargate Atlantis: Homecoming - by Jo Graham and Melissa Scott - is a continuation of the Stargate Atlantis series finale, where Atlantis lands on Earth. Now the crew wants to get back to the Pegasus galaxy to continue fighting the Wraith (who after all, might end up coming to Earth), but the politicians would rather keep the technology. They end up getting back, but having problems along the way - in almost exactly how they usually would in the series, which is followed by exactly the regular stuff of the series. Of course, if you liked the series, like I did, that will feel like a satisfying (even if not particularly clever) extension of it. Thus, recommended for the fans of the series.

Neptune's Brood - Book Review

Neptune's Brood - by Charles Stross - is an interesting SF view through a future where humanity (kind of) has expanded to many stars - but never figured out how to travel faster than light. Thus, they can only travel on very slow colony ships - that max out at 1% light speed - or digitize themselves and upload between star systems. The latter is helped by the fact that humans have evolved beyond our current bodies (now named Fragiles) and now are based on a very interesting structure based on mechanical cells. These allow for upgrades (vacuum resistence, wings, pressure resistent, different forms, etc), and you can actually backup your brain state on what is called a soul chip. There are also a few drawbacks, like being attacked with a debugger or an hilarious but short zombie situation. One of the interesting things in the future is that the very rich can just "fork" themselves into new people, adding features to further their interests. They can either transfer

Rogue Legacy - PC Game Review

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Rogue Legacy is a (very hard) platformer with a playing field that changes every time. And every time you kill, you can restart, but with a couple of major details: you keep whatever gold you had AND you pick one of your descendants to play (that is the legacy part, of course). Here is where you upgrade, mostly. Each descendant can have several characteristics, including being a dwarf, a giant, color blind, near sighted, and much more. Later in the game you can also unlock other types - such as a miner (gets more loot, but is weaker), mage (can choose between spells), and more. Each hero has its own spell, although some can switch between several. This hero had dizziness problem. And text is also inverted... This hero is near sighted. Graphics are obviously a little on the retro side, but are pretty good. There are plenty of unlocks, too. What I don't like is - this is in the rogue style, so it is pretty hard and you will probably die often. Also (and that is

Puzzle Craft - iPad Game Review

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Puzzle Craft is mostly a match-3 game. But there are some clever RPG and very minor city building elements too. First of all, the match 3 action - it takes place either on the mines or the farm. Here is the mine (there are more tile types later in the game). The match-3 scheme is based on choosing a type, and dragging your finger across matching tiles. You can also use diagonals, which makes a huge difference. Both farm and mine are limited by number of moves, and you can get upgrades that give you more moves. The farm has several upgrades that allow some tiles to be extracted for free. Using tool don't count as a move. Some tiles give you bonus elements. For example, matching a certain number of coals will make a diamond appear on the tile grid. You can also note on the top row of the previous screenshot some of the tools. There are plenty of tools - tools to grab all of an elements, transmute elements, remove dirt, etc, etc. These are very useful and can almost always

Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten - PC Game Review

At a first look,  Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten looks like another Flash TD game. The graphics (VERY retro), sound and the fact that it is written in Flash all contribute to this impression. However, the game has a very nice, well told story and the TD elements have plenty of room for different tactics and strategies. TD is done with fighters you either recruit automatically on the story or for scrap (the game's credits) on towns. That alone is a major element as they are expensive and get more so with each added recruit. Types are berserks (sword fighters), archers, healers, knights (sword fighters with heavy armor and that pierce enemy armor), ice mages and dragons. You place them in the maze, as usual. However, each one has a small cost in Psi (power units that you get on the start, as well as for killing enemies), so you can't just hire lots of them without thinking. Each kind of unit has different powers that are only available at different upgrades

The Frozen Sky - Book Review

The Frozen Sky - by Jeff Carlson - is a SF novel that takes place on Europa (the Jupiter moon), during first contact with alien species. I like the "Frozen Sky" metaphor, as well as the later insights on how the aliens think. There is some nice AI tech forays in the beginning, but that has little effect for most of the book. It starts well, but the middle really bogs down. Thankfully it picks up in the end. Overall I'd give it a 7/10.

Fractal - PC Game Review

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Fractal is an interesting, somewhat unique puzzle game. It reminds me of match-3 games, but you actually match blooms - a shape that is a center and every adjacent cell on an hexagonal grid. And instead of just moving blocks around, you push them - which also creates extra blocks (in the specific current color) if there aren't any. This is pretty easy with one color - when you add more it starts getting nasty. Personally, either I didn't get something on how to play or it is too hard for me, so I didn't actually enjoy it. There is also an Android and Linux version available.

Awesomenauts - PC Game Review

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Awesomenauts is a platform based base attack shooter. It is quite simple. You choose between a bunch of characters - all of which are completely different and get very different extra powers. Some have blasters, other knifes, one has a healing wave. Then you start getting dropped on a rocket (where you weave to get extra coins), which is probably the most annoying mechanic. Next, you can pass by a shop - where you can buy extras specific to your character. For example, one has dynamite and a bull that pushes enemies. Another has a bunch of drones and a healing bot. Each of these powers have a bunch of upgrades, and you choose what you can unlock before each game. Then comes the attack. There are multiple levels (usually) and your objective is to destroy the turrets (mostly to pass them), and then the main drill, at which point you win. One interesting tidbit is that each side generates drones, which are weak but are a major tactical detail as you can hide from turret attacks

Bad Bots Challenges - PC Game "Review"

Bad Bots Challenges demo consists mostly of running around a room shooting bots that pop out of anywhere. I don't really get how this particular design would be fun, much less how it would lead people to buy (if you click on the Campaign item, you just get a link to buy the game). Really not recommended.

The 5th Wave - Book Review

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey covers an alien invasion. The pace and presentation were good, and it was enjoyable, but the excess "teen crush on the apocalypse" bits plus some of the glossing over details, made it seem less than it could be. The twist should also be too obvious when it happens to be surprising. Overall, OK but not great.

Gunpoint - PC Game Review

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Gunpoint is a puzzle/stealth game. I have reviewed a few of those, including Stealth Bastard  and Mark of the Ninja , but Gunpoint feels quite different. You are an spy who can take on different missions, and have a few gadgets. You can jump really high and stick to walls, but the most unusual game mechanic cames after you buy a gadget that allows you to rewire items in the game. For example, a wall switch might control the lights. But you can make it control other lights, doors, turn off cameras... And you can rewire things from afar, so that other people can trigger them unwittingly. You can also jump into guards (OK, that is a common platformer mechanic) and knock them out. It is also possible to jump through glasses. You also have upgrades points and several extra gadgets you can buy. The tutorial is well planned and explains most of what you need. There is also a very well done Load Savegame system, that allows you to go back several sets of seconds or restart the le

Terms of Enlistment - Book Review

Terms of Enlistment, by Marko Kloos, is a military SF book. The story takes place in the future, when the world is even more packed full, with plenty of huge wellfare neighborhoods - and colonies on other planets. The main protagonist is smarter than average and manages to leave the projects for a better life. (This reminds me of a Charles Sheffield book - Higher Education) In this book, the boy joins the military. Cue pretty much regular SF military start (although very engaging). Eventually, he gets dumped into the territorial army and goes to nice, heavy battles. Then there is a twist and he goes elsewhere. The ending makes sequels very much possible, and I'd buy they in a heartbeat. While the overall plot description seem formulaic, the execution is very good and I enjoyed it very much. Recommended to fans of Military SF.

Little Inferno - PC Game Review

Little Inferno is an unusual game - mostly you get or buy objects, and burn them in a fireplace. I wasn't planning on getting it, but it came in the Humble Bundle 8. I am glad it did - it is quite fun. You burn objects, which react in sometimes interesting ways - an oil ship starts shooting oil (which can be ignited), bugs turn flames in different colors, bug exterminators turns into a flamethrower, an old game turns the flames retro and much more. All of these objects drops coins that are worth more than you paid for it, and so you go on buying more stuff. This stuff is into catalogs, which you require combos and money to unlock. Combos (as you probably expected) are done by burning objects together. Usually you can guess from the list of the combos, although some are a bit difficult. There is also a back story, with a girl that send you letters, letters from the company and weather reports. Overall, quite fun, and strongly recommended.

System error: in your favour - Book Review

System error: in your favour by Iain Clements is supposedly 112 pages long. It feels even shorter, though. The book is a classic AI story. People work with AI, something happens, it goes sentient and gets out of control. Traditionally, I really like these. However, Iain delivery feels a bit stiff somehow, and it is only OK at best. There are several editing errors (in addition to typos), including one I didn't see before - text that has a line draw over it and new text that substitutes it after. I'd be very disappointed if I had paid the US$7.50 full print price. Even at US$2,87 I am not recommending it.

Inferno - Book Review

Inferno is the latest book by Dan Brown, which I have followed since Digital Fortress. Inferno also features Robert Langdon as the main character, with similar purposes to his other best sellers - describing plenty of historical monuments and mysteries, and solving riddles. There are also plenty of nice twists in the story in the way. I have enjoyed the ending on this one. On one hand, there is a major change in the book's world. But on the other, the whole book was moot from the start. Still, feels a lot fairer than the usual ending where everything is saved on the last second. Recommended.

Defiance - PC Game Review

Defiance is a MMORPG based on the TV show. I like the show so far, so when I heard there was a free trial for the weekend, I went for it. Defiance has a mostly bad rep so far. Clearly some people like it, but most don't. I have played for about an hour, and so far I don't like it. It is very standard MMO fare, with nothing particularly good about it. Collaboration seems to minimal - and it lacks the sense you get on Guild Wars 2 that you are with a bunch of people (and bots) working for the common good. At least there is a decent critical shot. But enemies pop from the silliest places. So far, nothing to really hold my attention. This isn't worth the time I'm spending on it. I'll update this if I play more.

Sanctum 2 - PC Game Review

Sanctum 2 is a mixed FPS/Tower Defense game. I have played Sanctum too, and it was OK, although I usually felt like I was just waiting for a level to finish. Sanctum 2 has a number of differences from the original game. Unfortunately, I seem to dislike most of them. The UI feels less readable and with less details, and the multiple characters and their guns feel quite off. Graphics are good, but don't seem like much of a particular advance. For several small reasons, the gameplay really doesn't work for me. Overall, I really don't like it. I'll update this if I play more.

Anomaly 2 - PC Game Review

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Anomaly 2 is mostly a reverse Tower Defense (TD) game. That is, you pick the attackers and go at the towers. The story of the game takes place a few years after the initial alien attack on Anomaly: Warzone Earth  . I didn't play all the way through, but apparently at the end we win. But then they come back on force and take over the whole planet, expect for a few survivors. As the game starts, the survivor group is trying to get the plans to a superweapon. The main difference of this game is that many of your units can morph for two different versions - one with more range and another that is better for close combat. For example, one form might have a long range artillery that only shoots in a near straight line, and the other rockets with a 360 degrees turret. That greatly adds to the strategy you need during the game. Also, there seems to be much more towers popping in the middle of the action - so you will choose new paths in the tactical view much more. As usual, your

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit - PC Game Review

I bought and downloaded Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit quite a while ago, but only got around to playing it a few days ago. I have to say that it is much better than I expected. I really like the graphics and the selection of cars (which look very good). There are some interesting gameplay mechanics - such as the shortcuts and the (quite common) stuff you have to do to get nitro, such as slipstreaming, near colisions, etc. The driving is fine and you can really see the drift difference on wet pavement. I also liked the touch of controller vibration when you get off the road. The cop line of the game is what I like most. Hitting the other cars is fun, and the weapons you get (such as spike traps, roadblocks or an EMP gun) are useful without being too powerful. I have been playing with a XBox controller, and it works well, but I can't help but feel that the analog stick doesn't have as much resolution as I'd like. Maybe it is because I don't have much practice with the

LASW - Land Air Sea Warfare - PC Game Review

LASW - Land Air Sea Warfare is a RTS game that seems to specialize in massive battles. The tutorial is almost good enough, and graphics and sound are acceptable. I played for quite a while and the music didn't bother me at all - it just seemed repetitive at first. Most things are common - the base, factories, defenses, tech levels you can upgrade, etc. One very different thing is that there are minerals spread on the map which allow you to build special, massive units when you mine them. There are a few things I really didn't like, mostly where it differs from convention: - no cursor stop for the screen. On a multiple monitor setup, this is VERY annoying. - you use left click to select, move, and attack. The result, of course, is that you will try to select a moving unit only to move another you didn't deselect first - you can build anywhere an unit can see. I can only imagine what kind of crazy battles that causes in multiplayer, but even against the computer,

Super Sanctum TD - PC Game Review

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Super Sanctum TD is a retro style Tower Defense game, based on Sanctum (which Sanctum 2 ad copy calls the first FPS Tower Defense hybrid, even when the first called itself one of the first...). Frankly, I wasn't planning on buying it, but it was free when you got Sanctum 2 on pre-order, and it was so cheap I couldn't resist. Basically, you get a 3D top/side view of the level. It probably would be easier to view on a real top-view, but then it'd look more like a 2D game. Graphics and sound are fairly OK for a retro game. For some reason 1024x768 seems to be the only resolution - this is tiny on a full HD monitor and quite annoying. Music is just repetitive and bound to irritate anyone after a few minutes. Gameplay is almost OK. You place towers and upgrades, as usual for TD. You also get some selectable powers that can be used directly, such as causing explosions (on a place or on the whole field) or teleporting enemies back to the start. There are a few nice str

Off to be the Wizard - Book Review

Off to be the Wizard, by Scott Meyer, is a wonderful mixture of sci-fi and fantasy, in a comedy tone. It starts with a random hacker that finds a file with his name and height in it. He increases his height on the file - and suddenly he is taller. Just like that, he discovers a way to change reality. And then proceed to use it - badly, which causes him to flee to the past, off to be the wizard... On a way, the series reminds me of Rick Cook's Wizardry series, where a programmer goes to another dimension where magic works and proceeds to program with magic. Of course, in this book the premise is completely different as the magic is just altering our reality by editing a computer file. Overall, the book was awesome and I laughed a lot - and even skipped some sleep to read it. Very much recommended.

The Knife of Dunwall: DLC for Dishonored - PC Game Review

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The Knife of Dunwall is a DLC pack for Dishonored, which has 3 missions where you play Daud, the assassin of the Empress. Daud has pretty much the same powers as Corvo did, but has some new powers and gadgets - including Summon Assassins, Chokedust (stuns enemies for a short while) and Stun/Vaporize mines. One particularly interesting addition is the concept of Favors. You can buy those before a mission, and they can be something like a disabled alarm, a rune placed somewhere or a code to a safe. Very useful! I have finished the first mission, and I like it as much as the regular missions, that is, very much. Strongly recommended for fans of the game. And if you haven't looked into it already, I strongly recommend it too, and you can read my review for Dishonored . A nice start for the first mission of The Knife of Dunwall

As Esganadas - Book Review

I rarely read books in Portuguese. I hate translations, and almost all I read is written originally in English. However, recently I read As Esganadas, by Jô Soares, in a single sitting (to be fair, I had to sit around for 3 hours while waiting in an hospital - but if the book wasn't so good I might have switched to doing something else after a while). While a bit old (I bought it shortly after the release, but then forgot about it), this is the latest in Jô Soares' series of fiction that takes place in historical times, and often confuses what happened and what was fiction. The story is a about a serial killer in Rio de Janeiro that likes killing fat women in ironical ways. While I think that his motives could have been exposed later in the story for better effect, I really enjoyed the book and laughed hard from the beginning to the end. Very much recommended, if you can read in Portuguese. I don't know if translations are available (can't find them at Amazon) a

Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack - PC Game Review

Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack is a platformer with absorb things to grow mechanics. Graphics and sound are pretty good - but I found a few places where it was hard to continue. Other than that gameplay is good, but not great. Not particularly recommended, unless you really are a big fan of platformers.

God Mode - PC Game Review

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God Mode is a 3rd person view shooter, with a hell motif. It has a semi-single player mode - it is more like you are playing a co-op game, but alone. You mostly shoot your enemies (or melee them) until you get the key monsters and the Test of Faith is concluded. The whole Test of Faith is just a level modifier. Maybe there is a thick fog, or infinite ammo, or (and this one is called God Mode) you get indestructible at random intervals. You also have Oaths, which are a personal modifier - such as getting more XP and Gold on a level but getting less ammo per pickup. Not very exciting. Graphics and sounds are pretty good. You start with a shotgun and uzi. The unlocks are clearly meant to be earned - I have played for about 40 minutes and still am not close to getting another weapon! And this one of the things I didn't like on the game - progression is crazy slow. Also, when a Test of Faith is completed, it is sometimes hard to see where you can go. Other than that, i

Antichamber - PC Game Review

Antichamber is described as a "mind-bending  psychological exploration game". It is interesting, but very weird and quite probably like nothing you ever tried before. For example (spoiler alert, but it is just the basic) - going back where you just came from may change what is there. And this is just the start...

Fixed - Antichamber crashes at start

I have just tried Antichamber and it crashed after a few seconds of sound. Installing the new PhysX drivers fixed that. You can get them at Nvidia  . Now it runs fine. There are people who report that this worked for them, and others that say it didn't, though.

Cubemen 2 - PC Game Review

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Cubemen 2 is a retro looking 3D strategy game. You have a bunch of towers - excuse me, units - that you can send anywhere in the play field. You get the usual types - pistol, flame, ice, mortar, laser, and a couple of unusual ones - blockers and mines. Action on campaigns is pretty much standard TD (tower defense) stuff - waves of enemies of various types. Several of the enemy types are quite similar from a distance. I'm not a fan of the camera style used on the game, and often found the view annoying. Gameplay was mostly boring to me too, and often I was just waiting for things to end (you can control the speed, but I felt this way even on fast mode). Music is repetitive after the first few minutes. Overall, I didn't like it and don't recommend it.

Pressure - PC Game Review

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Pressure is a nice little racer/shooter with top view and a steampunk style. There are plenty of upgrades available, and graphics are good. Sound and music are acceptable. Gameplay is OK. For some reason I'm not crazy about the steering - maybe it is too loose? The physics are OK, but shooting all the time feels silly. Ramming is very effective after you upgrade it. I have tried both on the controller and on keyboard+mouse, and it feels a little better on the latter. Overall, it is OK, but I recommend you try the demo before you buy it.

First Meetings in Ender's Universe - Book Review

When I recently finished Ender in Exile  there was a little blurb on the end that mentioned how the story of Jane "meeting" Ender was covered in  First Meetings in Ender's Universe . So I immediately got it. First Meetings in Ender's Universe - by Orson Scott Card  covers a little of the background of the series. The book is composed of 4 stories: The Polish Boy - a story of Ender's father. In theory, this is a big spoiler, though. But it was nicely covered. Teacher's Pest - the story of how Ender's parents met - all orchestrated by the I.F. Ender's Game - The original (or so it seems to me) story from which the longer novel came. I read it on the early 90s when Asimov's Science Fiction has a brief brazilian version. It is very good, and it does have the first meeting of Ender and Bean. But pretty much everyone who buy this already read the full novel, so it mostly feel like it is filling space on the book. Investment Counselor - the stor

Ender In Exile - Book Review

Ender In Exile - by Orson Scott Card -  is both a sequel to the Ender's Shadow Series (albeit only as far as Petra and Bean's lost kid) and an expeansion of events mentioned in the original Ender's Game. It covers the events from when Ender won the war and got sent to be governor of the first human colony. Some of it contradicts minor things in Ender's Game. A new version of that chapter is available from IGMS's site for magazine subscribers (but doesn't seem worth reading, IMHO). The book feels like the original - Ender comes upon situations, and wins every time in ways that surprise you. There is some coverage of the Formic's bio tech, that I felt was interesting, as well as a letter from Ender to his parents which was quite touching. Overall, I really enjoyed and really recommend it to fans of the series. Non-fans should get Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow (better in many ways - clearly Card was a better author by the time he wrote it).

Fixed - Google Chrome ERR_SOCKET_NOT_CONNECTED

I was just getting ERR_SOCKET_NOT_CONNECTED errors when trying to access Google from Chrome. A fix is going to the url chrome://net-internals/ , go to Sockets tab, and click the "Flush socket pools" and "Close idle sockets" buttons. Using Shift+Control+N for a new Incognito mode windows also allows you to do a quick search.

Signal Ops - PC Game Review

Signal Ops probably doesn't fit any genre properly. I guess it is mostly a stealth squad-based tactical game, where you control several agents from a 60s style control room. For various reasons, the game annoyed me constantly. First, I had to find the config and switch to DirectX (and BTW, that is a very bad looking screen), or it'd just do an annoying electrical sound from the hidden menu screen (not sure who thought this would be cute - it is pretty awful). So OK, now it runs. There is a semi-tutorial on the controls to start with. They are half for game controllers, half for keyboard+mouse, so I start using the game controller (the controls feel quite a bit silly, too, such as the combos to turn clipboard pages or open a door. Could be common for all I know). I don't think you can see or switch controls from the menu. When I get to the control room, the instructions are for the keyboard, and that is the only way it seems to work. So now I switch again. There is s

Darksiders - PC Game Review

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Darksiders is supernatural third-person fighting game. I am not a big fan of the 3rd person view, and only occasionally I have liked a game that uses it (Prototype comes to mind, specially as it has several mechanics similar to Darksiders). The fact that there  doesn't seem to be a way to use mouse + keyboard instead of the game controller doesn't help. You are War, and somehow was summoned to Earth as forces from Heaven and Hell started battling. Most of the time you will swing your sword around to kill your enemies. That is well done enough and somewhat fun. First boss in the game - the Destroyer You can also grab and throw objects - such as cars - at enemies. For whatever reason I never really got the hang of it and it felt somewhat off to me. It also required in the first boss fight - the Destroyer (on the image above) will pop them from below your viewpoint and throw them at you, at which point you can grab exactly one and throw it back at him. Several of th

Hacker News 33 - Review

Hacker News 33 has some notable articles: - Using Python and k-means to find the dominant colors in images - How to Set Up your Linode for Maximum Awesomeness - Feross Aboukhadijeh - Simplify your life with an SSH Config File - Joel Perras

Hacker News 34 - Review

Hacker News 34 had some interesting articles: - Four Unix Command I Abuse Every Day - Tom Limoncelli Some different ways to use Unix commands - such as color coding grep results. - Page Weight Matters - Chris Zacharias Short article about decreasing page size for YouTube - and how it apparently increased page latency. Actually, people with really bad net connections started using YouTube since the page was 10 times smaller (200KB vs > 1MB). - The Story of the PING Program - Mike Muss Cute - Packets of Death - Kristian Kelhofner Interesting view on how the author discovered bad packets that can bring down an Ethernet controller. - How I Automated the Boring Parts of Life - Steve Corone Useful automation tips.

Asimov's Science Fiction - April 1 2013 - Review

Ok, apparently my Kindle is taking the date of this issue seriously, because I just can't find it without using the search function. Weird. Not that surprising though - for whatever reason Amazon has created a very weird format for these magazines. Could be worse, though - in the Android version, it simply didn't remember where I stopped reading. So every time I reopened the magazine, I had to figure out where I was last (sometimes weeks ago, as I usually read only bits on the cell phone). Basically unusable. Well, the big reason I read this one is that Neal Asher mentioned his story: - The Other Gun - Neal Asher A nice novella on Asher's Commonwealth. It is part of a new trilogy - which should be interesting. This one has some serious steampunk flavor (the novella starts with the main character dropping from orbit in a bathysphere, for crying out loud!), and the sidekick is an human converted into an raptor. Nice villain, too. The end seems to drag for a bit after

Edge of Infinity - Book Review

Edge of Infinity is an SF story collection. The introduction goes on about how these are the Fourth Generation of SF, but frankly I don't see it. These feel to me to be mostly as edgy as any good Analog stories, maybe a little more. Anyway, for no apparent good reason I'd like to lightly comment on some of the stories: - The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi - Pat Cadigan One of the edgier group. Humans are on the gas giants, and tech is what you'd expect (nothing fancy like FTL or AIs leading everyone), except that humans can change to forms more fitting to low gravity work, which live longer too (the Sushi slang of the title). BTW, there is so much made up future slang that it is quite annoying at first - reminds me of Asimov's introduction on one of his classics explaining why he wouldn't go there (Nightfall, I believe). - The Deeps of the Sky - Elizabeth Bear Also edgy, about sentient life forms in gas giants. Nice. - Drive - James S. A. Corey More of

Shadow Ops: Fortress Frontier - Book Review

Shadow Ops: Fortress Frontier is a mixed magic/military book. This is kind of a common theme - some time before the book started (or in the middle of the story), for some reason (specified eventually or not) magic returns to our world. Common people suddenly gain power. In some, monsters of myth return. In others (the Shadowrun games and series, for example), people turn into them. In Shadow Ops: Fortress Frontier, people can have several lines of magic powers, such as air, earth, healing, rotting, etc. It is a sequel, but given the much better reviews I read this one first. As the book starts, Coronel Bookbinder, a regular paper pusher, discovers that he is magical now. After no one is able to determine what his magic is, he is sent to push papers in another "plane" - the source, where an American army base explores the area and is in regular combat with the locals (such as goblins, rocs, giants, etc). Of course, what follows is the classical history of the meek pape

Dirt 3 - PC Game Review

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Dirt 3 is a well know race game, focusing more on rally style race. Personally, I had never played it before. But there was a sale on Steam yesterday, and since it has such a nice rating on Metacritic, I decided to jump in. First of all, it is a somewhat big download - 11GB. But Steam was doing well yesterday so it was pretty quick. One unpleasant surprise is that use's Microsoft Live. This time it just added some annoying delays, but no real problems. The game has a lot of talk and screens before you race. Graphics are just beautiful, particularly the cut scenes and cars. One other thing I noticed is the use of controller vibration (I'm using a MS XBox controller), which is very nice on the race start, but not so fun after. There are plenty of offers of car packs and more on live, which are only mildly annoying. I started out on casual, so there are a lot of assists enabled. The most obvious assist effect is a line in the middle of the track, displaying t

FTL - Faster than Light - PC Game Review

FTL is a roguelike space game. You control a ship and try to outrun a fleet chasing you. Sound and graphics are retro. Gameplay is almost great, except that the game can be very hard and it is easy to be killed because of luck. I can't help but think that a game save feature would be a good idea here. Other than that, the game is fun. Most of the game revolves around picking your next jump and fighting enemy ships (the mechanics are simple but somewhat fun). Placing your crew to best effect is a big deal, as you can have better dodge, shield recharges, gun recharges, etc. You also have to move them around to fix any damage to the ship. You also have to manage power to various systems, and upgrade your ship with whatever scrap you get in the way. There are also stores where you can hire crew, buy and sell parts and get your ship fixed. Overall, the game is OK, unless you like VERY hard roguelike games, in which case it is pretty good.

Weird Worlds: return to infinite space - PC Game Review

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Weird Worlds: return to infinite space is defined as "a hybrid roguelike game of space exploration, adventure and starship combat". Alien Proctologist? You can choose between a science, a pirate or military vessel, each with different capabilities and goals (meeting aliens, getting goods, etc). Most of the game revolves around traveling to new planets, where you can get new ship pieces, or goods you can trade elsewhere. I found the trade system to be a little baffling - you have to trade an item for another with equal value. So if you have several low value items, you can't use them to get a higher one (at least I couldn't see how to do it). You can also hire mercenaries or acquire new ships on the way. On some systems there might be other ships, at which point they might trade with you or start combat. On a game like this, combat is a big part of the fun. Frankly, I either didn't get or really didn't enjoy it on this one. Graphics and sound ar

Organ Trail: Director's Cut - PC Game Review

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Organ Trail: Director's Cut is a zombie take on Oregon Trails - a strategy game that I played a bit on Apple II. In Organ Trail, you travel around on a zombie wasteland with a group on a station wagon, suffering random good or bad luck events between towns, as well as some choices (example: there is a zombie horde in your way, do you a) wait, b) attack them, c) sneak by). On the town you can buy supplies such as car parts, fuel, food, medkits, etc , sell stuff or do jobs, such as kill zombies, bandits, etc. On everything, the graphics are genuine 4-color CGA, with music and sounds that feel like 80s stuff. If that is good or bad, it is up to you, of course. Gameplay is mildly interesting, but I can't say I liked it all that much.