Author - Ripper71

MilitAnts Review

2016/08/01

News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review

I’ve been playing side-scrolling shooters since the first side-scrolling shooters came out in arcades and then on the first home game consoles. If I didn’t own it my cousins did and, if by some freak of financial windfall, the three of us didn’t then the local video store knew not to expect their copy back for a while. Of course, Contra held a place more nearer and dearer to our hearts than some family members but friends and family who challenged us and felt the frustration of getting their butts kicked by kids time and time again understood the excitement and fun of the video gauntlet thrown down each time. Fast forward 29 years… OMG HAS IT REALLY BEEN THAT LONG!!! *deep gasping breaths* sorry just give me a moment… let’s just say fast forward a lot and here we are still playing the side-scrollers with the same love as yesteryear this time with a flair that Disney would probably appreciate.

Game On:

The Disney-like part and the aspect that makes the game different from other side-scrollers is in the name MilitAnts. You play a sole soldier of the ant army who must defend the approach into the colony by a huge swarm of bugs lead by deadly and really, really hard bosses, all on a 2.5D.

First off to describe the horde you face. You fight over 30 different kinds of enemies including an army of different termites and an air force of wasps, all willing to put their differences aside to come try to kill you and your kind off. Talk about making someone angry. Boss battles are frustratingly hard, luckily the save/restart point is right before so you don’t have to travel far but dying happens aplenty.

One of the best things about being a soldier ant: you may use 2 legs to stand but that leaves 4 legs for weapons. At first this means next to nothing because it starts you off with the same two weapons (pistols) in your upper hands and the same type of weapons in the two lower arms which are blades. Not sure why you have to have 2 blades instead a choice to have one gun and one blade, maybe one of the hands are underdeveloped and can’t hold more than a Swiss Army pocket knife.

So you start with two energy pistols that wear down fast and you want to buy some better gear. To do this you beat down they enemies with combos so that they drop pieces of crystals which you then turn into crystals and buy stuff with. You REALLY want to have some upgrades in place by the time you hit the second boss or you will find your time filled with cursing in more languages that your realized you knew (for me it was Chinese I think thanks to Firefly). Adding to the challenge of getting that weapon upgrade is 2.5D. In case you haven’t experience it it is when the game is given depth and there is a level deep. So besides side scrolling and shooting those in front and behind you you also need to shoot them beside you. The only way it ever works really well is with very few enemies back there which MilitAnt doesn’t do or with an amazing target system which begins the problems with the game.

The game is a port, it doesn’t really hide the fact and the interesting thing is playing on the keyboard and mouse then PC with a game controller there were certain things better in each. Using keyboard and mouse seems a little bit better at targeting though maybe a little bit slower going between targets. When it comes to jumping however the controller wins hands down and holds its better in pretty much everything else. That might be why in the PC online manual for it has controller directions only. Personally I kinda wished they had just stayed with controller controls and not done the .5 part of the 2.5D. It made a game I enjoyed whenever there was no creature back there frustrating when it would pop up and I would have to try to target it.

One thing I have to note is that the game is very beautiful, which a lot of players don’t care about but I think adds to the Disney way about it even more.

Last Thought:

I was really excited for MilitAnt which might also explain a bit of my frustration with it. It is a decent side-scroller with the 2.5D gameplay and a bit of the Disney flair. I think I might go take a break from gaming and watch one of the insect flix until I get angry at one of the bad guys and replay a boss or two.

[easyreview title=”MilitAnt Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3″ ]

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LoveHandle Smartphone Grip Review

2016/07/11

Ripper71

Mobile News, Mobile Review, News, Reviews

Let’s face it normally when you think of love handles you think of that patch of fat on your hips that refuse to leave. If it is on your significant other it could be a spot of comfort that you hold onto in a chilly wind as you snuggle up, if it is on you it is the spot you glare at whenever there is a birthday party or wedding with particularly good cake. But there have been a few products out there with the same name that are handles used to protect the things you love and the one I have found the most impressive by far is the LoveHandle electronics flexible band handle.

LoveHandles On:

These have been around for a while and have been an “As Seen On TV” product but there was something that always makes you feel a little nervous trusting your multi-hundred dollar electronics to a little strap of of elastic, plastic and adhesive. The funny thing is that we often hold them by our hands instead which can become far more compromised and likely to be holding other valuables. LoveHandle uses high quality elastic bands wrapped into solid plastic with a 3M adhesive. When you consider it all the weakest point in the whole process is the adhesive and there are few adhesives that have a strength greater or more trusted than 3M. I use an iPhone 6+ and after attaching the band and deciding I fully trusted it I held the strap by one index finger and spun it as hard as I can (alright I was sitting on the grass so I did hedge my bet a touch) and kept doing it until my finger got tired then checked over the strap and saw nothing wrong and I am still using it. I use a wallet case so I really don’t want to drop and lose my phone when recording Bellagio fountains or July 4th fireworks or take a picture out the car window of the newest somehow worse Hello Kitty on the Las Vegas Strip charging for pictures. They come in different colors as well so it was easy to match my case or they can be custom ordered by companies as rewards for employees and customers with their individual logo on the elastic.

When my wife and I are going to bed at night we tend to wind down looking at our phones, I am usually reading a book on it and she is usually making last minute FB and twitter posts. More than once the way we have realized it was time to go to sleep was when the phone slips from our hand in exhaustion and *SMACK* phone to the forehead if we are lucky, I have a bone disorder that can cause my nose to break from such a strike. Now if I fall asleep my hand and phone attached to my fingers just drop to my chest. I have enough LoveHandles for my wife to use one soon, I think a couple more decent self inflicted smacks at bedtime will do it.

Another great use for the LoveHandle is that not only can it keep the screen in your hand it can keep it out of the way of your hand. Carrying groceries, coffee, FroYo, frozen dinners, hot soup, basically anything you would want to keep separated from a sensitive piece of electronics can be slid onto the back of your hand really easy using the strap so that it is kept safe. I was recently on a walk, slid it around to the back of my hand and went to take a drink, the water spilled all over my hand where the phone had just been a second before. It may have been fine but I’m sure I didn’t have to worry and find out.

One last thing and this really should not be minimized. I have nerve disorders and damage in multiple places in my body which can cause my to lose feeling in half my hand. That means the heavier the electronic and the more prolonged the use the more I have to worry about dropping them. The LoveHandle comes in more than one size to accommodate larger electronics and hand size but even at it’s minimal size it can dramatically help people with grip handicaps handle their electronics safer. The handles are so efficient I have plans on putting them on my game controllers so that when I am doing prolonged gaming I don’t have to worry about dropping the controller due to my own issues. The plan is to put them on the underside of the handles so that my last two fingers which I have almost no feeling in will just be strapped on the controller. It will definitely go on one of my iPad 2 cases and probably on the bottom of one of my laptops so that when I pull it out or put it back in a bag I won’t lose my grip. Just as importantly no matter what I did the LoveHandle never lost it’s grip unless I wanted it to.

Last Love:

The LoveHandle is a rather simple idea that is a genius low cost solution on how to keep your valuable electronics safe without compromising use. Besides all the consumer uses listed above I am sure folks will find tons of commercial and industrial uses for them as well, and as a handicapped individual I can tell you I will be coming up with more and more ways to use them than as seen on TV.

[easyreview title=”LoveHandle Smartphone Grip Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”5″ ]

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Amazing Las Vegas Comic Con 2016 Photo Gallery

2016/07/07

Ripper71

Geek News, News, Screenshots / Photos

The Amazing Las Vegas Comic Con is one of my favorite cons of the year. I have always looked forward to it – to experience the big names in the business that it always seems to draw. The past has brought Dr. Who’s and CW bad guys as well as great artists who created some iconic comic book and cartoon characters. This was the first year it had moved into the Las Vegas Convention Center Central Hall to give itself the breathing room it was beginning to lack in the South Point ballrooms.

Normally I would have thought moving it to the big convention center would have brought even bigger names, though some of the past would be hard to top and just as welcome to anchor the convention. Unfortunately and strangely the show was a bit anorexic when it came to celebrities this year. Rob Liefield who has shown up yearly with great energy was in the program but at the last minute didn’t make it and former celebs and writers such as Len Wein, George Perez, and John Barrowman were never on the list. This didn’t stop it from having some great panels about Preacher and Harley Quinn with signing slack neatly taken up by Steve McNiven and Kevin Eastman but I hope with the new space will come new possibilities and next year we will wind up with the star studded con we are used to from this event.

Photo Gallery

Deadlight: Director’s Cut Review

2016/06/27

Ripper71

Geek News, News, Reviews, Xbox One News, Xbox One Review

Over the last couple of years not only have the indie games had a very nice resurgence but they have done so with beautifully stylized gameplay. Limbo was a great example of this and one that many people not even into video games heard about with its gloomy black and gray atmosphere and child protagonist who suffered the fate of many hells. Other great examples were Contrast with its vintage carnival feeling and Valiant Hearts with its pencil drawn appearance and heart wrenching story line. This is indeed a great time for indie games to show style and shine. Which brings us to another great example of this trend: Deadlight: Director’s Cut on the Xbox One.

Hands On:

Deadlight popped up on my radar the moment it was announced because for the last 20 years whenever I have a game with a clan or guild I always name it the Deadlighters and also the first reference to “deadlights” I had ever read was in Stephen King’s “It”, a favorite read of mine. Then when I saw how the game looked I was constantly watching for updates and waiting impatiently for the release date. I love stylized games and this is the perfect time to have that love flourish with episodic games like the Tell Tale titles “The Walking Dead” and “Fables” and even some big names like Dishonoured, Bioshock Infinite and the Borderlands games. Deadlight: Director’s Cut reminds me a lot of Limbo with a little Borderlands feel for the background since the background has colors to their settings whenever there is light but the foreground is almost exclusively shades of black.

This isn’t just done for atmosphere though, it plays key into the game itself. The zombies instead of going with a name like walkers or deadheads or zombi are called shadows because when they attack in dark places all they are are moving shadows, at their most in a well lit environment they are shadows with a little grey silhouette where the light strikes them. This makes it so that sometimes the choice isn’t whether or not to fight or run but trying to figure out where they are and how many since once they pile up in a group they are just a black and grey mass. Those of you who just think they will crank up the contrast and brightness to make them out better should know that they considered this and all you do is just make all the shadows look washed out and grey, no help it just spoils the mood a bit.

You can have a beautiful looking game but if the gameplay sucks it doesn’t matter. It is a side scrolling platform game but unlike most of them in that genre it isn’t a fighter. Fighting is the quickest way to get yourself killed. Run, jump and roll are really you keys to survival. Sure you get an axe at one point and even a gun and shotgun a couple times (the game finds ways to take these away when it chooses) but unless you are fighting a lone shadow or attacking from a point of advantage such as above and out of reach odds are they will kill you. Their damage seems to compound by the number of them you are fighting so that if you are fighting one and button mashing B with all your might you may only lose one or two of your health bubbles but if another one comes along you will be dead in seconds. Gunshots to the legs will drop them and slow them as they have to get back up but headshots are the way you need to go. There are a couple of spots where you get a secure location with a bullet stash nearby so that you can fire away and release some frustration but mostly you are dodging shadows and finding creative ways to use the environment against them and to keep yourself safe.

For the most part the save spots are pretty well located so that if you go through a series of difficult jumps and dodges you get rewarded with a save so that you can worry about the thing around the next corner. There are different ways to make it through sections which is nice, when you die and go back to a spawn you might find yourself considering another approach. For puzzling purposes you can’t swim, which I would probably find far less annoying if it were not for the fact that your character is a park ranger from a small town in Canada that came down following a recording that Seattle had a safe zone. By the way if there is one thing that I have learned from apocalyptic stories never trust a government recording, feel free to check it out but do so with great care.

Another thing about the game is it is set in Seattle in 1986, which means you see a dark silhouette of the Space Needle jetting up towards the grey sky when you are outside and it is before the time that you could just give your wife and daughter a call on their cell phones and ask where they are now. There are multiple ways this could have been handled such as power outage or government communication blockages but just setting it in 1986 seemed a nice and elegant solution. In general the storyline is full of elegance and on this Deadlight Director’s Cut the alternate ending makes you really think about what you just played through and makes you consider playing through the game again, maybe this time on Nightmare Mode which means no save points (yikes!).

Besides Nightmare Mode Deadlight: Director’s Cut also boasts a Survival Arena mode in which you see how long you can survive and your score is posted on a leaderboard online so you can see who are the best shadow boxers out there! It also has beautiful 1080p graphics and improved controls so if you played it before and felt it was sluggish jumping or had poor response in some other way they have been working to get the bugs out and have come up with a nice smooth play.

Last Light:

Deadlight: Director’s Cut is a beautiful game with solid side scrolling gameplay and fun but challenging puzzles. The storyline will make you think about what you would do in an apocalypse and if you pay attention to the clues in the story and the hidden items you might just figure out the alternate ending which is almost as dark as the shadows themselves…

[easyreview title=”Deadlight: Director’s Cut Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″ ]

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Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus

2016/06/25

Ripper71

News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review

Japanese culture has always been unique in its development and tastes but some of the most well known ways are those that gamers experience. In particular would be the fighting games which have developed so much respect over the years that they are often only partially dubbed and instead are subtitled in sections where the beauty of the language can be appreciated. This is also found in Japanese animation which is known for it’s uniqueness and sometimes naughty or risque nature which then bleeds over to the video games which are often based of the animated or printed works. So one form of expression effects the other and keeps circling until sometimes it hits a spot where folks stop and say “wait a minute… that isn’t very PC” like in the occasion of Senran Kagura Sinovi Versus.

Hands On… err Game On:

You may have heard of this game, well seen it in writing, hearing it is kind of hard to understand to most folks in the U.S. but you may have in the right group of friends. It is the immediate sequel to Senran Kagura Burst which, once again, in the right circles you may know as the tales about warring shinobi hidden in girls’ academies across Japan as well as mercenary strike teams all composed of “buxom ninja girls”. They do battle not so much to save their lives but rather to stay clothed as each section of health dropped takes a piece of clothing with it. You don’t go down to visual full naughty bits but a couple of band-aids over the tips of jiggling top section and what I would guess to be a micro-panty covering the front lower section or a light flash might be considered a bit exposing and less than PC. All “in HD and silky smooth 60fps on Windows”. There are different outfits from undergarments to powerup special garments to be unlocked and used over 20 different characters giving lots sexy fun to be had.

Now there are people who the above would be all it would take for them to say game over, give me a different title. The pros and cons about are valid and not what I’m here to debate. I’m a game reviewer, I am giving you all the information you will need to decide if a game is for you or perhaps a family member. There is no true nudity but it comes close and the girls are mostly the school girl archetype that get stripped down.

With that handled let’s get into gameplay. As you fight you level and with each level you can unlock more attacks and combos as well as purchasing more clothing styles. Clothing styles that are unlocked are cosmetic but make the game more interesting. The weapons that can be unlocked and purchased however do add to gameplay so it is good to keep an eye out for those.

It is 3D brawler gameplay with mid-air combos and some silly, fun special attacks that I won’t spoil here. There are 20+ fighters all have their own weapons, attack styles, combos and special attack. The game was originally released on the PS Vita so now this version has the advantage of all the DLC that came down on that platform included in it. Clothing comes off as a damage indicator much like in other games which would have had a large cut that would be bleeding. In a sense this game gives you an option to gratuitous blood and violence by having sexuality instead, though our society is generally known to be more tolerable of violence over sexuality as we witness on television. I forgot the clothing was even coming off and was concentrating on health meters for when to use a special health boost or when a special attack was ready. Bystanders watching you play the game probably get the most from the clothing flying off.

The game has four different story narratives for the four different groups making it interesting to approach from each view and know why they are willing to go into a battle where the costs are the loser has their school burned to the ground. One of them is rather disturbing, made to be funny no doubt but would be a crime in our country and I can understand why they wanted to fight. This game uses its storylines to point out that even good can be a shade of gray.

Beside the single player campaign there is also 4-person multiplayer online in classic Death Match, Strip Battle to unclothe your opponents, and Understorm, a race to grab the most falling undergarments from the sky. The first two are pretty obvious and standard but the Understorm was pretty funny, I found myself laughing pretty good during that one. It was nice to have one where you are almost doing an odd Easter egg hunt.

There is only one real complaint I have about the game but some people will find it a pretty decent one. The game is a direct port and very obviously so. All tips and instructions are given for a controller and trying to train let alone fight on the keyboard is miserable. So I grabbed my Xbox 360 controller and plugged it in and the game played fantastically. Some hardcore PC fans just hate to use a controller and for them you can remap the controls to suit your needs. I found plugging in a controller to be a far easier and just as satisfying game play.

Last Peek:

Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus is a great game with solid brawling, fun combos, and all around nice action. It has plenty of playtime from plenty of point of views as well as online gameplay to keep it always fresh. It is also not a “PC” game and is loaded with gratuitous jiggling, near nudity, and lots and lots of panties which may upset some players. For those that don’t mind a bit of naughty bust out your controller and give it a play.

[easyreview title=”Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″ ]

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Enhance GX-H3 PC Gaming Headset Review

2016/06/10

Ripper71

News, Peripheral Review, Peripherals News, Reviews, Tech Review

When you live in a household of multiple generations and different sleeping schedules you are always working to stay quiet but still enjoy life. You may want to play that video game where listening for the direction of a step or heavy breathing makes the difference between being the hero of the round or the latest teammate to be roasted by your friends for a bit after you got shivved. Or maybe after a stressful day, you finally got to take your shoes off and you just want to listen to your own music with your eyes closed for a bit. If the music has bass or highs you may find yourself turning down the music which let’s face it sucks. Our question of the day is will the Enhance GX-H3 PC Gaming Headset handle all your PC sound needs while coming in at a price point well below a lot of the competition? Let’s find out!

Heads On:

If you just glance at the side of the box you might think that the ear cups have lights in the logo which they do not. That point aside the Gx-H3 has a very nice look with black and blue coloring and the shade of blue is a dark one which looks nice and reminds me of the color of professional cabling I used back in my broadcast news days. To this same point the cable from the headset is wrapped in the same durable rubber used at a professional level. Located on this cable is the volume control and mic on/off switch which are both large controls on a large stylish box. I found if I needed to adjust this quickly or open and close a mic quickly I was able to find the box quickly thanks to location and size then find the setting I want to change extremely fast.

The cable is 104″ long so that you can sit at the computer and use it comfortably but it won’t keep getting caught under your rollers when you move. The rubber cable ends in dual 3.5mm inputs on one end and the left ear cup at the other end. The microphone is attached to the left ear cup and is comprised of a 5.5″ rubber arm with rotating adjustment and slight in and out adjustment to bring the mic closer to your mouth but not have you heavy breathing in everyone’s ear on team chat. It is particularly nice to be able to push the arm up and out of sight if you are playing on a game without mics and yet if you switch to a game with chat you can quickly move the arm down, flip the in-line mic switch and start saying your piece.

Gamers who get into long gaming sessions can tell you that one of the most annoying things is when the headset gets uncomfortable to the point you just crank the sound up on it and set it on the desk top to listen. This kills the effectiveness of stereo sound to help locate targets and your ability to block out the local environment while gaming. To that point the comfort of the cup and weight of the headset comes into play. At a weight of 10 ounces they come in lightweight and there is a very comfortable thick padding on the bridge between the cups that made it so that I forgot sometimes I was wearing a headset instead of using speakers and luckily took them off right before getting yanked back. The ear cups are well designed too, rounded and decent size, they helped block out the yelling in the next room about a WWE match so I could concentrate on writing reviews. The padding keeps them comfortable over your ears, if you are prone to sweating in headsets you will get the cups a bit damp but they dry quick and are sweat resistant.

I guess you can have all of the above and still have a headset that doesn’t get the job done if the key element of the whole thing doesn’t work; that key element being sound. Luckily the GX-H3 has a very solid sound setup. Using 100mW speaker power the sound was clear whether I was assaulting it with bass, highs, gunshots, footsteps, voice chat.

Last Listen:

The GX-H3 PC Gaming Headset will handle all your computer headset needs while doing it in a nice looking product. To top it off at the time of print it could be purchased new at a $35 price point which is a great deal on such great gear.

[easyreview title=”GX-H3 PC Gaming Headset Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”5″ ]

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Tropico 5 Penultimate Edition Review

2016/06/09

Ripper71

Geek News, News, Reviews, Xbox One News, Xbox One Review

El generalissimo and I stare at each other across, neither of us flinching. Slowly I reach forward and, ever so gently, flick his nose causing his head to bob. Now that I have once again controlled him at my desk, previously on the PC then as a bobblehead, I now prepare to do battle as him on a new front… the console! One of my latest reviews is Tropico 5 Penultimate Edition and even though I have faced him before this is the first time in the Penultimate Edition.

Features:

Penultimate Edition contains the full version of Tropico 5 and 5 DLC packs – The Big Cheese, Bayo del Ofato & Hostile Takeover (Generalissimo, Mad World, Joint Venture) as well as 5 exclusive bonus maps.
The Eras – Start your reign during colonial times, survive the World Wars and the Great Depression, be a dictator during the Cold War, and advance your country to modern times and beyond.
The Dynasty – Each member of the extended family of El Presidente is present on the island and may be used as ruler, appointed manager, ambassador or general.
Research and Renovate – Advance your nation by discovering new buildings, technologies and resources.
Advanced trade system and trade fleet – Amass a global trade fleet and use your ships to secure trade routes to neighboring islands or world’s superpowers, both for export and import.
Explore your island – Discover what lies beyond the fog of war. Send prospectors to look for new deposits, but be wary of hostile animals and native tribes.
All new art – All artwork is re-made from scratch to provide Tropico 5 with a unique visual identity.
Cooperative and competitive multiplayer – Up to 4 players can build up their own cities and economies on any given island map. Players can choose to share resources, supply and population or declare war on each other.

First Volley:

If, like me, your visits with El Presidente were mostly limited to the main package then trust me are you in store one heck of a lot of extra material. It has been a while since I played AND that was on a PC which has a heck of a lot more buttons and a different feel entirely. So the first questioned I encountered was how hard would it be to control?

Luckily they did a pretty good job transferring the title between platforms following the footsteps of other sims that got moved to the console so that for the most part the controls were intuitive to anyone who has played console sims. There is a tutorial which is pretty long but I recommend playing all the way through to really get the controls down and a help section for anything that doesn’t explicitly cover. The tutorials might seem way too easy at times but still play them and use their time to practice other aspects since they are designed with getting you prepared for long sessions at the game. Luckily playing on the console you can take your controller anywhere and sit, lay, do handstands, any way you want as long as you can see the television.

Glancing up at the features you can see that you have a couple of centuries to play through as well as extra maps. The original maps and quests are fun but the new additions are really where the fun can be found. You can tell that the development team that worked on them weren’t in it for the money but were in love with the title and wondering what they could do next. So you travel through the Great Depression into the possible futures you may choose to create for yourself. Personally I am just really wanted to get blimps going myself, always was fascinated with the aerial trees of development. When it came down to it though I found I really liked the World Wars which reminded me of a couple other war sims but with all the details we have comes to expect. When it comes right down to it this a b

With multiplayer element it is pretty much like any multiplayer you would expect where up to four players build as quick as they can then whack each other. Now is a good time to play multiplayer too with a renewed player base!

Last Shot:

Playing Tropico 5 Penultimate Edition was like revisiting an old girlfriend, or in this case one who had grown up and made a lot of new additions to her life. It is a good time with all the extras you could want for the game then probably a few more, with multiplayer running hot right now. Time to get out and make your legacy again El Presidente!

[easyreview title=”Tropico 5 Penultimate Edition Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”5″ ]

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One Troll Army FREE! Review

2016/06/08

Ripper71

News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review

If you play video games on the PC and haven’t heard of One Troll Army I am surprised, if you spend much time on Twitch I am equally surprised if this is the first word you have about the Midevil monster mash. However if you play games, like fun monster titles AND pay attention to the Twitch community I might approach you with kindness and ask how long ago your amnesiac fever had broken. One Troll Army is a fun game that might have been missed if not for the fact the developers set a price tag of about $10 and then laid a challenge at the Twitch community’s feet: One Troll Army would be live for 8 hours straight, if the Twitch community beat the game it would not only be fun kudos but the game would cost $0 on Steam. The loyal (fanatical) Twitch community got it done in 6 hours so while you are reading this go ahead over and start downloading the game for free, it doesn’t take up much space or dl time and if you don’t like it after giving it a play Uninstall.

Trolling Around:
It is very seldom that my first comment in the hands-on portion of a review is a concern/gripe but in this case I feel warning is not just fair but really necessary. This game has such counter-natural, clumsy controls that at first you might think they are intentional. It reminded me a little of surgeon simulator where you try to perform open cavity surgery with a hand that moves like it has been shot up full of Novocain. Looking into it as far as I can tell the difficulty in the controls isn’t on purpose and after a decent amount of practice you almost forget the difficulty until you took a break and came back again and your Troll and goblins go scattering more like a monkey.

This kind of brings up the only other minor issue, a WoW player in the family walked in the room while I was playing and asked “what is the orc game you are playing?” and when I said it was a troll she laughed and said nope! People have long had a different interpretation of what a troll looks like compared to what an orc looks like. There is no definitive answer and just because WoW has made one particular look strike like an orc doesn’t mean the image is set in stone, as a matter of fact I support an anti-piracy program that has it’s version of a troll that looks just like the game’s one.

Now that those have been addressed no matter what kind of creature you think it looks like it looks really nice. The graphics can be simplified and the output can be changed down to a square if your monitor still needs an upgrade but that being said if you have a nice state-of-the-art graphics cards and monitor you can crank the game up to unexpectedly nice graphics quality. Whether you are zoomed out so you can see your castle and the enemies’ approaches or you are zoomed in to see the detail of the enemy and how there are so many different types with different abilities which are recognizable onsite when you move in tight. Also when you assign a goblin to a task in most games they start performing the task but otherwise there is no noticeable difference in the NPC, in this game if they are sent to build something they don yellow hardhats, looters carry bags on their backs to the fortress and the shaman that heals you between waves has an ornate headpiece and a healing dance he performs. Upgrades on the buildings also have detailed and nice changes, you feel a lot of satisfaction when the first tower goes up and the nicer the walls the more opportunity you feel you have to try out more advanced and experimental tactics. You can also pick which kind of tower is at which location such as cannons or arrows to best defend that section of wall.

The enemies seem to mostly have certain locations they attack from but I believe that is mostly due to land obstacles such as a big lake. So paying attention to where they attack and how they group up might be a deciding factor on whether you survive the wave or not. They attack in waves which give you time to recover your three main supplies that have to get you through the battle: your health, you castle’s health and your special powers’ energy bar. They are all pretty self-explanatory, losing all of your health or the castle’s and you surrender causing you to lost the round and take some penalties. If you have a choice between losing the round with your troll’s health or the castle’s lose it with the troll. Not much more to it, as you progress you unlock special powers and additional buildings and upgrades to both but when it comes down to it it’s all about you and your troll and smashing time.

Last Smash:
There are a couple of things that will make One Troll Army a bit rough to get used to at the beginning, namely the controls but if you still with it you will find yourself flying through the levels and really having fun with it. If you don’t the game was FREE so just Uninstall if you never get used to the controls. The game would be a good deal at it’s original starting price of $10 but for free it is really hard to rate, especially when it is a true Free-To-Play game. I guess if it isn’t five coins to a player they can go ahead and Uninstall it with nothing lost.

[easyreview title=”One Troll Army Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”5″ ]

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Battle Worlds: Kronos Review

2016/06/06

Ripper71

Geek News, News, Reviews, Xbox One News, Xbox One Review

As a junkie for tactical games, our Editor-in-Chief doesn’t even ask if I want the assignment, he just passes it my way. He knew he especially had me hooked with Battle Worlds: Kronos because this big fish of a game was making splashes on a console platform, giving me a chance to rest my back in bed and figure out how they took a game format that usually uses most of the keyboard and squeeze it down to 12 buttons and a couple sticks. So enough about me, let’s talk about Battle Worlds: Kronos.

Hands On:

When the developers started at building the game they had a vision, what would “Panzer General” or Battle Isle” look like if it were made with modern technology and graphics? So they went to crowdfunding through Kickstarter and tried to get their backers input as much as possible so that they can truly bring about a game that the backers wanted to see. I got into Panzer General a lot but for the most part I went into this game not remembering either of those and so as to not go in with a bias I didn’t research. I quickly found I was playing a hexagonal strategy game with vehicles that looked like StarCraft but the gameplay was very traditional hexagonal turn-based which intrigued me since traditionally strategy games don’t mesh well on the console, partly the player based but mostly since it generally takes a lot of keyboard to get some of the work done and you are now down to a dozen buttons and a couple sticks.

Going with a hexagonal base was a very smart choice, there is no rush to get through you turn you just need to make sure you get everything done with a controller. Taking your time, double check choices, save often and end your turn only when you are completely sure you have done everything. If you did forget anything that is why you have the frequent saves. If you are a bit of a perfectionist like people who keep re-rolling their adventure game stats until they feel they have them about as high as possible you can do the frequent save before each battle since it is random chance and can turn out ugly. If you are an armchair general this game is terrific, you can figure out flanking maneuvers, that a frontal attack by itself is usually suicide and when to pull back and regroup.

I really thought using a controller would slow me down because the only way you would be able to do anything was to memorize a complicated set of buttons to get anything done but it features a really well-done design that wasn’t quite intuitive but really not that bad. Once I realized that turns had phases to them (MTG fans will pic it up in a heartbeat) then it went even smoother. It was also already built into the game that way since the game’s PC days but if a game is having a hard time converting from PC to console and can work in a phase system it will insanely ease their work. With phases you can use the same buttons you used in phase one of your turn for say phase three because they are no longer occupied with the last commands. Brilliant!

The single player campaigns boast over 50 hours of content which would probably fry your brain on so take breaks to stretch often and don’t be afraid to save, it will just make your game more fun. There were a few times I would forget to save for a couple hours then BAM! I need one and I have to go back nearly to the start of the level.

Another nice thing about the game being turn-based is how the multiplayer system can be set-up. They have actually implemented a “play-by-mail” system which is something I haven’t seen a game do in some time. Back in the days before telephones in every house game of chess would be played through the mail, each player having a table in their house and making their moves and their opponents on it. In this case the multiplayer game is very similar. You make your move then turn it over to the other player and come back later in the day or even the next one. During that time the other player will come and make their move. It’s clever and I’m surprised I can’t remember seeing it done with a turn-based strategy game. Maybe the impatience of the generation. Additionally, the game’s graphics look great and fit this genre perfectly.

Last Volley:

Battle Worlds: Kronos was a great example of a game that promised it’s Kickstarter supporters something and not only delivered but set a new bar. I look forward to playing it some more and replaying it and DLCs on their way. I’m not sure what I hope for more, that the development team gets snatched up to create even bigger projects or have them continue making great games on their own terms. For my money (and it would be since I would invest in the next DLC) I hope to see more Battle Worlds in the future…

[easyreview title=”Battle Worlds: Kronos Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”5″ ]

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Postal Redux Review

2016/05/25

Ripper71

News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review

Lately I have been playing a lot of strategic games, sharpening my mind while my body is resting. I start playing figuring I might go for an hour – then three hours later I’m still playing, my eyes have become blurry and I need something to take my mind off of sharpening my mind. TV can be nice for that but it is passive participation and sometimes you really just need some silly hands-on carnage to release the stress of the day. It doesn’t get much more active crazy carnage than a classic killer brought up to date with gorgeous gore like Postal Redux on Steam.

Hands On Guns:

Ah 1997, the Nintendo 64 was hot, Final Fantasy VII reased in Japan, human cloning is banned… ah heck who cares about that crap? If you are reading this you want to know about Postal which made a bloody splash on the market back in that year. In human years 19 isn’t that big of a deal, in video game years that is an exceptionally long time ago! As a result Postal was a little unrefined looking but nobody really cared it was all about the mass unadulterated slaughter of everything in sight. It earned it’s claim to fame in video game history and those who lived through the days talked about it fondly.

Now fast forward to these days and those who talk about it fondly decided to do something about it and bring it back, cleaned up graphics with a couple more goodies to main and kill with, another mode and some new areas to kill in because let’s face it everyone wants to go kill happy in a Carnival.

Just like in the old days the cops show up at your house and boy is that a mistake. So as to not give away plot points (there are a couple) you use up to 10 weapons including mines, heat seeking missiles, flame throwers, of course machine guns and now the Commanding Revolver to tear your way through 17 levels. Tear through a junkyard with your trusty boomstick (they call it a shotgun but I will always call them boomsticks) which is also great for the all important double tap, head through the ghetto with a Molotov cocktail (I’m sure they won’t mind) and lay mines for extra fireworks on the midway at the Carnival. Just remember above all save some flamethrower for the marching squad, that is epic!

The improved graphics really make the game the fun that it is, the old one which is still available and around is okay but look at a comparison and you can see the huge difference. I absolutely love the Carnival level in case you haven’t gotten the hint, the colors and richness of the graphics show the how much the developers cared about the game’s updating.

The addition of Rampage Mode also will keep you coming back for more since it is a constant wave mode that rewards kill streaks, creative kills and speed. It’s a great way to play then challenge a buddy to beat your score and go back and forth.

Last Blast:

Postal Redux on Steam took a classic game that players looked back on with nostalgia and gave it a caring update that makes it even more fun than it was in the old days with graphics that it well deserved. So the next time you head it pounding from a hard day or you just want to unwind or heck you simply want to napalm angry ostriches have Postal Redux updated and thrill in the mayhem.

[easyreview title=”Postal Redux Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Nostalgic Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”5″ ]

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