Author - Ripper71

Aiper Thor-S Gaming Speaker Review

2023/04/19

Geek News, News, Reviews, Tech News, Tech Review

I was walking around one of the night events at CES getting ready to call it a night knowing I was going to have a 13-hour day the next when I got a text that I won a raffle for a wireless speaker and to stop by the Aiper wireless pool cleaner booth. When I stopped by the booth I received an Aiper Thor-S Gaming Speaker and boy I definitely wanted to pass the word on about it.

Speaker or Martian War Machine?

The first thing that has to be mentioned about the Thor-S Gaming Speaker is that calling it a portable speaker is like calling a stealth fighter an airplane. Or in this case, calling War Of The World walking machines as some SciFi ship. That last one fits the best because this is a large portable speaker designed to look and sound like an alien ship with mechanical spider-like tripod legs and a front that looks like a part eye and part laser shooter. The back looks like it has an exhaust port and there are lights in multiple locations that can breathe or be music-responsive lighting to name a couple of settings. The legs are adjustable and the volume and bass knobs are built into the design to lend more to the alien ship design feel.

As if that is not already enough when turning the Thor-S on it plays a SciFi sounding machine noise, as well as when it connects to sources and powers down, and probably a couple of other sounds we haven’t even found yet. The speaker’s design and lighting are nice and the mechanical noises it makes going between settings is great but in the end, it needs to be more than that. It has to have a clean sound otherwise it’s not going to work as its primary function which is a quality sound experience. Luckily this is not a concern at all because this speaker rocks. It has Bluetooth 5.0 connection, TWS stereo sound, and X-Bass Technology combined with Insert Nuvoton DSP, 6+ hours of playback and a 10M device range just to name a few things. The Thor-S can also pair with another Thor-S to provide 360 surround sound as they chain together, if there is too much interference between the speakers you can always use a 3.5mm aux input to maintain your sound experience. It even has double passive radiators, eliminates resonance, and has knobs to make bass and volume adjustments that are built into the aesthetic design of the speaker. You can also adjust the playback controls on the speaker which is very handy when gaming.

They can pair up!

The Aiper Thor-S is a great speaker not just to listen to but to look at as well. Solid feeling quality across the board, it only shines more when it comes to accurate performance. When not in use I put it on a table in my hallway and pat it on the “head” like a pet whenever I walk by. Then when I want to play some Call Of Duty Mobile or listen to some music in bed it takes me less than 30 to make a connection to a new device, half that time once paired, and I can choose between listening to one or two speakers worth of sound giving either a 180-degree coverage or go for the two speakers 360 coverage. If your phone rings while you are gaming or whatever the Thor-S has a built-in microphone so you can still catch that important call then get right back to the action.

The Thor-S Gaming Speaker is not water resistant or proof so it’s not recommended for the bathtub or the pool. Considering Aiper specializes in wireless pool cleaners it would not surprise me if Aiper came out with a waterproof version eventually. Otherwise, the Thor-S does whatever you might want a personal speaker to do and does it with SciFi style.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Tribit AquaEase Bluetooth Shower Speaker Review

2023/04/12

Ripper71

Geek News, News, Reviews, Tech News, Tech Review

When you are in a full house you tend to time your shower water usage so no one starts a cold morning with a cold shower. My solution was to make a shower playlist and listen to a certain amount of music to help time my water instead of annoying alarms. I play them through a portable speaker across the room so it doesn’t get wet with my phone on the towel rack balanced close enough for me to adjust the volume between tunes and pause in case someone needs to talk to me. It’s a rather antiquated example of how to solve the problem and luckily Tribit came up with an upgrade in the shape of the AquaEase Bluetooth Shower Speaker.

At its core it’s exactly what it advertised, a water-resistant speaker with adjustable playback buttons. It takes only seconds to pair, just like anything else you might want to Bluetooth 5.3 connect to. You power on the speaker, check the device you are pairing too, and then select the speaker. What’s cool is what it does next. If the device you are pairing with, such as your phone, has a clock on it the speaker syncs up to it so that you know exactly what time you get in the shower and the time you reach up to turn it off. I have friends who have set their time ahead on devices so that they can avoid being late, well the speaker shows the time of whatever device it’s connected to so it should always match.

Shower with Music!

When it comes to a speaker you want to be able to change the sound levels to correspond to the levels on each tune. I’ve got one particular soundtrack that is crazy muddy and by bad luck I almost always have some high-quality studio mix right after it and suddenly the house is alive with the sound of my music… with someone sleeping in the room right next to the bathroom all day because they work the night shift. In the past, I would ready myself to reach out to my phone on the towel rack and adjust as the tracks require, which can suck when you have a headful of shampoo and you wind up letting too much heat out. Now I have the AquaEase hanging from my curtain rack by the included mini lanyard right next to where I stand and push the volume up and down buttons and if I need to talk to someone while in the shower I can pause and restart the music.

Two of my favorite features of the speaker are one that is just for fun and another that could prove very useful. I’m that gadget geek who loves things that are shiny. AquaEase has some great lighting patterns going around the outside that go nicely with the music. When glancing up for the time, adjusting tunes, or leaning back to wash out the conditioner it’s a kick to see the lighting going, it’s even cool to just use it as a light and shut the rest in the bathroom off. The other part which is actually very useful it is equipped with a microphone so if a call comes in you can talk to it without rushing to dry your hand and the side of your hair off. That alone makes it worth its money for those who need consistent contact with their phones. All in a speaker which can be far more directional by the sheer fact it’s water resistant and can be brought in the shower and pointed right at you.

So far we’ve been sticking to the shower uses of the speaker. I play A LOT of Call Of Duty: Mobile on my phone, to the point I have calluses at the spots of my 4-finger grip and one of my most consistent issues is keeping track of time when I’m playing it. No in-game clocks and my phone is the gaming console so times fly insanely fast. I’ve found I can listen well to the game through the speaker, check time at a glance and if I shut off the lights in the room I can game to the speaker’s colorful show. Music is important to me so if I can improve my ability to listen to it at any given time I go for it and the AquaEase fits those needs.

If there is anything I would add to the speaker is next or previous buttons in case you want to skip or re-listen and maybe a mirror but the music changing can be the one thing you reach out of the shower to do.

AquaEase makes aqua time easier to groove through, but it’s more than just a speaker it’s an audio/visual sidekick. It can be useful in watery environments and out, wait until pool season kicks in and we find a whole new list of uses.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Pros:

Built-in Clock
Play and Pause Ability
Bluetooth 5.3 Stable Connect
Microphone Built-in
Volume Control
Fun Lights

Cons:

No next or previous buttons

Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro Review – Taking the Mechanical Keyboard Marvel to New Heights

2023/02/27

Ripper71

Geek News, News, Peripheral Review, Peripherals News, Reviews, seal of excellence

The Razer BlackWidow series has been the company’s purely mechanical gaming keyboard line for quite some time. This in contrast to the more e-sports focused Huntsman line featuring Razer’s optical mechanical key switches. I had used the Huntsman Ultimate for quite some time, enjoying the robust construction and precise key movements. I thought more traditional mechanical key switches to be passé. After getting the chance to check out Razer’s newest BlackWidow offering, the BlackWidow V4 Pro, I could not have been more wrong about mechanical keys – especially Razer’s. Now I now have a new favorite keyboard, so read on to find out if this new BlackWidow V4 Pro keyboard is worth your valuable time and hard-earned money.

Razer’s new BlackWidow V4 Pro looks stunning – a mixture of classy and stylish vibes along with gamer-focused functionality. Its black aluminum housing has a pleasing semi-gloss shine while the detachable magnetic wrist rest is is super-comfortable and features a stylishly-integrated Razer logo in the carbon fiber style pattern. Razer’s Chroma RGB lighting is the best it has ever been with the BlackWidow V4 Pro thanks to its per-key lighting and transparent light windows under each Doubleshot ABS key cap allowing for maximum light transmission. The RGB is bright, vibrant, and fully-customizable as part of the Razer Chroma Studio. I recently played Hogwarts Legacy and loved how the keyboard would run through various Harry Potter specific color schemes. Setting up and using the Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro is easy thanks to Razer’s Synapse software suite. All you have to do is plug it in via the included USB-C to USB-A braided cable and make sure the Synapse software is installed. It will automatically detect the new keyboard and add it to its peripheral list.

The Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro

The Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro features the return of the five macro keys on the left perimeter of the keyboard as well as the addition of three buttons which run along the actual left side of the keyboard housing. These three dedicated macro keys are super-useful, although I did find myself hitting them by accident at times when, say, I put a water bottle next to the keyboard. Above the five macro keys sits the Command Dial. New for the BlackWidow V4 Pro, the Command Dial is a very cool macro control with eight default modes like web browser tab switching and zooming in and out. However, you can also do things like shuttle through video if, say, editing in Premiere Pro, or zoom in and out of images if you’re using Photoshop. It is worth noting that, while very cool and useful, I did accidentally hit it a few times when I was meaning to press the escape key. This is because that, while the BlackWidow V4 Pro is a full-size keyboard, its keys are actually spaced a little closer together than what I was used to with the Huntsman line. With a little use and practice, it became a non-issue, but don’t get frustrated if it happens to you a few times while acclimating to the keyboard. On the upper right quadrant of the keyboard is the dedicated media roller and four media keys which control things like play/pause, etc. The media roller has a nice, diamond texture allowing for smooth and controlled movements. The keyboard also comes equipped with a USB pass-through port. It requires you to plug a second USB cable into the keyboard and an additional USB port – but, once done, you’ll have an extra USB port on the keyboard to plug in a mouse, wireless dongle, etc.

On our desktop

The mechanical keys features on the BlackWidow V4 Pro come in two flavors: yellow (linear) and green (clicky). The linear yellow option is a quieter key switch offering a bit more smoother response while the clicky green switches offer a more audible rapport along with more precise actuation. I personally like the clicky green key switches but this is purely personal preference – either way the keyboard costs exactly the same amount. I mentioned Hogwarts Legacy earlier in this review and, while I did play the game through to its completion on the BlackWidow V4 Pro (and loved it), I also played Sons of the Forest, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Blood Bowl 3, and even edited some YouTube videos via Premier Pro. Suffice it to say, I put the Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro through its paces and no matter what I threw at it, the keyboard kept performing splendidly.

Overall, the Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro has become my new favorite gaming keyboard. Its blend of form, function, and features is second-to-none. The Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro gaming keyboard retails for $229.99 at Razer’s official website and is available now.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Review

2022/12/05

Ripper71

Geek News, News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review, Xbox Series X News

Role playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons have been around since the early 1970s and by the mid 1990s sci-fi table top properties such as D&D, Shadowrun and Warhammer 40k did well enough that several table top games crossover as popular video games to this day. A great example is Warhammer 40k: Darktide, the latest game from Fatshark the team that brought us Warhammer: Vermintide 2.

The hive city of Tertium has been taken hordes of monstrous enemies and by monstrous they are actually soldiers driven mad by war or plague or sinister forces that have resulted in nasty mutations and heretical fervor. You are a reject that has been imprisoned for one crime or another but given one last chance to serve the Inquisition by saving the city from the dark force corrupting the land. If you fail, the city falls.

An important thing to take note of in Darktide is the visual and sound quality is quite impressive and immersive. In a game of fantasy and technology colliding it can be hard to be immersive, so creating an amazing but somewhat believable world can be crucial. We definitely recommend using headphones for the deep, rich sound and good voice acting. Speaking of voice acting, over 85,000 lines of dialogue were recorded for the game! The video quality is apparent from the moment you open the game and in everything from the cut-scenes to the madness of battle against wave after wave of foes come charging at your team over and over, playing in the dark can draw you in more too.

Your team consist of 1-4 players playing co-op in matches chosen from a quest board. The higher you level the harder the maps that open up to you. In many 3rd or first person shooters you can pick up enemy weapons off the ground as you progress through the level but this game has it set up differently: you earn gold from missions then spend it on weapon upgrades. Each member of the party can choose between 4 classes that designed to match mostly common classes of shooters and RPGs. You can be a Skullbreaker (tank), Preacher (paladin), Psykenetic (mage), or Sharpshooter (sniper/warrior). If you like to run off on your own instead of sticking together you will probably get wiped out without a hand to help you. The game is designed to be co-op dependent, watching each others back is how you get through it. Share your resources as you come to them as well, if you hog all the ammo and health your teammates might think that you can just play on by yourself. You don’t each have to have a different class like some games do but it doesn’t hurt to mix it up either. If you have played Vermintide 2 or The Evil Dead or Hunt Showdown even a majority of team based games in recent years like Team Fortress or Resident Evil then you have a good idea about the gameplay.

Gameplay is an interesting hybrid of range and melee, it mostly seems to come down to thinning them out with range attacks and be ready to strike and defend with your weapon upclose and personal. As a result you defintely want to work on upgrading range and melee attacks as well as weapons and armor. Not all changes need to be upgrades though, you can take your time building your character from the ground up from back stories to voice and body decisions such as build, tattoos, even the colors of eyes and hairstyle. It’s nice to not only play the style you choose but the build you like. If you get the Imperial Edition you also get extra outfits, skins, headgear and cosmetic portrait frame as well as a special tattoo and some premium currency. You even get the digital soundtrack!

One concern is whether or not there will be enough of a presence on the servers for the games to be kept full. This is mostly a concern since there are a lot of shooter games out there right now from remastered titles to new titles that require a small squads and are relying on the same pool of players. Being Warhammer 40K with its prestige-laden pedigree, it should bring players from everywhere from P&P table top players to Call Of Duty fans. Plus Fatshark, the developer, has promised this is just the first taste of a long lasting title spanning years which should keep players coming back for more.

Warhammer 40K: Darktide is just beginning as a title and already it is an impressive game. There is a lot of play in the game already with great graphics and sound and a variety of missions with different difficulties. It doesn’t punish a new player but still challenges a veteran of co-op games which can be a hard balance to achieve. We look forward to seeing how the game evolves and the fight goes on. Long Live The Inquisition!

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5

Hard West 2 Review (PC/Steam)

2022/10/03

Ripper71

Geek News, News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review

Strategy games date back to ancient times with some still surviving until modern days such as Senet and Chess. These days the board game Risk is a prime example of a strategy game stripped down to its basics while video games try to do the opposite creating more elaborate and detailed environments that make you think less about the rules and more about the gameplay enjoyment. With this in mind let’s take a look at one of the newest turn-based strategy games Hard West 2.

Fist off, if you didn’t play the first game that’s no problem the storyline is pretty self-contained with a lot of depth to it. There are dialogue questions which effect gameplay as well as telling a very gripping story. It’s about a gang who have a ghost train to rob only to find the devil going by the name Mammon challenging them to a game of cards for their souls. If this ended well then the story would have been really short. Instead the crew find themselves in a very paranormal pickle. The voice acting is excellent from everyone and when the dialogue gets a bit hokey it’s welcome since it shows the game trying to not take itself too seriously since it’s a turn-based paranormal western. The story is mostly told in cut scenes and in multiple choice question reveals which effect the loyalty of others.

Turn-based strategy gameplay is pretty straight forward being the norm now, most people would probably think of XCOM first for comparison. Hard West 2 is top-down version which relies on Action Points (AP) to determine how much movement and abilities you have to work with. For example the main character has three AP to work with so the player might use one point to get a position where you can shoot the bad guys, then another point to shoot, followed by a point used to duck your head for defense. All points are used up, unless the shot at the bad guy killed him then that character’s AP points reset and you have three to use again. This unique take on the AP system makes it nice so that you can really extend turns if you think ahead (aka: strategy) and figure out kill streaks completed by reloading AP. It makes it feel much more immersive to have the turn last so long and rewarding to come up with a great run.

The other big part of the fighting action is Luck. I’m notoriously bad luck when it comes to game odds so the Luck system is a very welcome one. If an enemy misses a hit on you or you miss a hit on them it fills up a Luck meter which you can then click on when you need a little extra luck performing an action. Adding that luck meter to a shot can make the difference of a kill shot or not which would reset AP. Finally it feels like the odds are ever in my favor! When they are, be sure to save often. Also, if hard difficulty isn’t cutting it for you, there is easy setting that make the play more dialogue driven. There is also a nightmare difficulty which definitely lives up to its name.

The environment really is up there with the kill streaks as being one of the big selling points for the game. It’s fun cruising along through wastelands in a ghost train with centipede legs. It’s neat to raise the dead or switch locations with other characters. It’s great to see the gory aftermath of witchcraft. I like it when the background is moving the whole time so it doesn’t feel like it is only a level. Riding a horse up to a train, shooting a baddy then climbing onboard while it’s cruising along doesn’t feel static. All of this keeps you coming back.

An interesting addition to the game is a deck of cards that you try to collect. Each card has a different ability and a player can hold as many as five cards at once and try to make poker hands for better results. It works similar to a skill tree and feels like a good start to an idea that could really be fleshed out. If there are any concerns it would be difficulty getting to elevated positions. We all know what Obi-Wan said about taking the high ground. For some reason trying to get on higher buildings or target characters up there can be really hard to do, so much so that a couple times I got frustrated and figured out alternate ways of doing it.

Hard West 2 is a great example of turn-based strategy games while showing such innovation on it that I would not be surprised becomes emulated and the new norm. It keeps you coming back with dozens of hours of playtime and excellent repeatability. I know I’m going to play it some more right after I’m done here.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

A Look at the 2022 Creation Entertainment Star Trek Las Vegas Convention

2022/09/22

Ripper71

Geek News, Misc Review, News, Reviews, Special Interest News

My favorite convention to attend every year is Creation Entertainment’s Star Trek Las Vegas. We take time off from work, put aside some money for the vendors and squeeze every minute we can out of very full days of stars among the stars. It is the place to go for all things Trek.

This year the convention took place at a new location, Bally’s on The Las Vegas Strip, and though the layout wasn’t optimal it didn’t stop a sell-out year of attendance. Whether on a stage or in the exhibitors, hall everyone was so happy to see each other and the interactions were stellar as usual. Fans got to chat while getting autographs or photos. The big Trek names got to interact individually with fans at their tables but to the whole convention in the main hall. Walter Koenig worked the stage with a very grandfather feel, George Takei made us laugh and feel heart felt sentiments as he talked about not just Trek experiences but how the lost members of the original series impacted his life. Kate Mulgrew is still our Captain Janeway and still has the gusto to keep captaining, and of course William Shatner was… well William Shatner. I doubt he will ever change. You didn’t have to be a bridge officer to be entertaining though. Ron Perlman and John Noble also handled the stages by themselves and were definite fan favorites. Ron Perlman in particular was having a terrific time up on stage and kept cracking himself up. A lot of people go to the convention for autographs mainly but stay for panels.

There are two main ways to get autographs and photos at the convention, one is through a sign-up system where you go into a separate room for the meetup and the other is at tables throughout the exhibitor’s hall. Each has its benefits but one of my favorite things about exhibit hall signing is the celebrity can work at their own pace, chat with people and take much more candid pics than the professional quality ones offered by Creative Entertainment. You can also walk by and see how they interact with their fans. Special kudos to celebs like Doug Jones, Garrett Wang and Michelle Hurd were definitely prime examples of how warmly they can treat their fans. Garrett Wang has impressed me this way every year I have attended and I look forward to it again next year, he always takes time for the fans and you can tell how much he cares about them by his interactions with them.

The exhibitor’s hall has a wide variety of booths and sci-fi/fantasy stars of just about all fandoms. There was Will and Holly from the Land Of The Lost as well as Star Trek Wines and the local Las Vegas Star Trek cosplayers. Star Wars is even welcome though don’t be too surprised it you take a little good natured ribbing. Then again the cardboard costumes can be fun too. They were even selling special pillows to help you sleep better and dream amongst the stars.

The only slight damper on an otherwise amazing show would be the convention space itself. The main theater seemed quite a bit smaller this year as well as having two of the theaters on the 26th floor of Ballys. The casino did set aside express elevators up to them but people would leave the big theater to go to something upstairs at about the same time so that even with the express there would be long lines and grumbling fans who probably should have went up sooner. I wouldn’t be surprised if STLV ends up back at its old location next year which seemed to have more than enough convention space and free parking.

Creation Entertainment’s Star Trek Las Vegas convention is one of the best meetups of starry eyed fans and friendly stars out there and though the root of the convention is Star Trek, it embraces fans of all types of entertainment and fandoms definitely embodying the ideals of the Federation.

Photo Gallery

Razer Huntsman Mini Analog Gaming Keyboard Review – Big Things Come in Small Boxes

2022/08/23

Ripper71

Geek News, News, Peripheral Review, Peripherals News, Reviews, Trailers / Videos

I have been a big fan of the Razer Huntsman line since its initial offering in 2018, even giving it our official Seal of Excellence – something we rarely award items. These futuristic new key switches having the benefits of both optical and mechanical keys was brilliant. That was several years ago and, since that time, Razer has gone on to refine the design even more – offering variations of the Huntsman to suit different types of gamers. In 2020, they introduced the Huntsman Mini – a 60% size version of the Huntsman meant for gamers needing a compact gaming keyboard. Now, in 2022, Razer has unveiled the Hunsman Mini Analog. This 60% sized keyboard features its new analog optical key switches. These allow not just on/off functionality from those keys but a gradient of control similar to an analog stick on a gamepad. But why would you want this – what benefit does it have for the gamer? Read on to find out!

From a design standpoint, the Razer Huntsman Mini Analog is nearly identical to its Huntsman Mini sibling. Its measurements are 13.35 inches long by 6.61 inches wide by 1.97 inches high. This is one slim little keyboard and certainly lives up to the “mini” moniker. The keyboard has a USB-C port on it and connects to your PC via an adapter USB cable that is included with the box. The body of the keyboard itself has an aluminum exterior that feels durable and well-built, despite its small size. When shrinking a full-size keyboard down to roughly 60% size, some cuts have to be made and, in the case of the Razer Huntsman Mini Analog, that means they removed the arrow keys, numeric keypad, and media control keys. However, as much as I miss them coming from the bigger keyboard world, they simply aren’t needed for the use cases imagined for the Huntsman Mini Analog.

Here is a video from Razer explaining the design and function of their Analog Optical key switch:

This keyboard is portable with a small footprint, meaning it’s a terrific choice for bringing to tournaments or cramped office environments. When I was working on my degree, I spent many late nights crammed into a dorm on a small desk. Having a larger keyboard would have just taken up too much space. Also a great selling point for the Huntsman Mini Analog is its full compatibility in the Razer Synapse software suite. Within Synapse, you can configure the analog keys, setup macros, and even set up to 5 different keyboard profiles. Even better is that these can be stored on-board the keyboard so you can use it in a plug-and-play fashion!

Another cool feature of the Huntsman Mini Analog’s Synapse integration is the ability to automatically set the WASD keys to “joystick” mode with the click of a button. There is a secondary button to configure the ‘Q’ and ‘E’ keys to the left and right shoulder buttons of this virtual joystick. When in this fully analog mode, the QWASDE keys are acting as a gamepad of a sort. You’ll actually configure it as a gamepad in your game’s control settings (unless it is able to automatically recognize the Huntsman Mini Analog). Razer does warn that there may be some games that disable any keyboard input when a gamepad is selected but your mileage may vary. I did not encounter any of those situations when testing out this keyboard.

If you are not looking to use the Huntsman Mini Analog in its analog mode, there are other options for these cool new key switches. You can set them to what Razer calls “Dual-Step Actuation” mode. What this means is that you can assign two different actions or key presses to the single key. These activate in two stages as you depress said key. The example Razer lists for this is that on the first stage you could have the key ready a grenade and the second stage to be throw it. But, you could also set it to be mini macros of a sort where you mix and match tactical options based on your needs. Say throwing up a shield followed by drinking a health potion, etc. The choice is really yours and I am sure you’ll find a lot of use in the dual-step mode.

Another cool feature of these analog optical keys is that the actuation point is no longer static. You can set the actuation point within Razer Synapse. If you prefer to only have to lightly press on the key in order to get it to fire, you can do so! If you prefer the full length of the key press, that’s fine too. Personally, I didn’t use this feature a lot as I found the keys to have a pretty short actuation distance already. But I digress…

The Razer Huntsman Mini Analog gaming keyboard is available now for $149.99. You can find it online at Razer’s website as well as many other retailers.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

Starship Troopers Terran Command Review

2022/07/08

Ripper71

Geek News, News, Windows PC News

Come on you apes, you want to live forever?!? I found myself yelling this that at my computer screen as I started my first campaign in Starship Troopers Terran Command and I was still making Starship Troopers appropriate comments right up until writing this review. The question is does the game call out to non-fans and fanatics alike? Let’s find out! Ripper’s Roughnecks! Roll out! Hoorah!

It would be very easy to miss a lot of the satire in the game if the player doesn’t have a fair knowledge of the material the game is based off. First a very famous book, then a series of infamous movies and even a collection of great cartoons. Dark Horse even puts out multiple Starship Troopers comics all to try and bring the bug worlds to life. With all that history a couple games would be expected to pop up from time to time so Terran Command almost seems a little late to the party but properly loaded with satire. As they say though better late than never. Would you like to know more?

Starship Troopers Terran Command is a single player, real-time strategy game. Gameplay consists of playing the Mobile Infantry through a campaign with each scenario/map unlocking for replay once you start it. There are five levels of difficulty which are damage based: at easiest your weapons do 2X damage, normal is 1X and hardest is .5X. So gameplay and enemy damage remains the same no matter which difficulty which works well when trying to train yourself on play by starting easiest and working your way up, making for great replayability of both the campaign and the maps. The maps are well designed with interesting topography that allows for chokepoints and other strategic attacks and defenses. One of the more interesting mechanics are Clear Line of Sight and Clear Line of Fire when it comes to fighting. If you have two squads of rifleman side by side neither one of them can shoot through their neighboring squad without killing them so if you try to they freeze up and a red mark appears over their heads. Moving until they have a True Line of Sight which can be done by a different squad formation or more interestingly put them on higher or lower ground gives squads a better chance to help.

You don’t have to keep all of your men alive (unless that’s the mission) you just need to keep one man in the squad alive and you can even lose and recapture bases as long as you maintain your objectives. You can also refill your infantry squad when available, save games when you feel like it as well as autosave often and change difficulty on the fly. Game controls are mostly traditional real-time strategy style and game physics for the most part are what strategy players are used to.

The graphics and audio are really important in this game since nostalgia for the franchise will attract most of the players at first who always wanted to stomp on some Arachnids. The ships and infantry are well rendered with even their click comments sounding fresh out of the films and cartoons. It is definitely immersive and time flies when you’re on a bug hunt. You don’t have to know anything about the Starship Troopers world to play and enjoy the game but it does help to know the acting is supposed to be over-the-top. Even the cutscenes which are done as motion comics are filled with patriotic music, smooth voiceover and smiling troopers with their limbs still on. On the topic of graphics and troopers when you lose one in a battle you can zoom in and actually see them go in a manner you would expect from the movies, explosions and gore galore. I could say more but we need boots on the ground out there, mount up!

The main drawback in Terran Command is that there are only single player campaigns with no plans to go multiplayer at this point in time. As far as I know there are also no plans to make an Arachnid campaign which fans will be getting gung-ho for so hopefully that will show up in an expansion. If a player isn’t really into Starship Troopers this game may not hold their attention as long as this game really feels like a love letter from the fans to the fans who will love it even if they wish for a multiplayer or bug campaign. On a big plus side, in a game about bugs I didn’t see any technical ones.

Word of mouth from lovers of the Mobile Infantry should bring in fresh boots for bug stomping as well as Starship Troopers fans lining up to serve. Starship Troopers-Terran Command is a traditional RTS at its core but the game feels like Starship Troopers through and through. I will be going back to Starship Troopers Terran Command on a regular basis to get some, and to do my part because service guarantees citizenship!

Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure Pinball FX Review

2022/06/07

Ripper71

Geek News, News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review

I remember seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark in the movie theaters, multiple times. It was a scary adventure movie with great stunts, snappy dialogue and epic music, what more could a kid ask for? At age 10 I soaked it in and wanted more which I got through the other movies, even the fourth one that shall not be named had moments. Then add to that the fact that I was a pinball addict from the age of six and it was only a matter of time before it made a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup move to mix one of my favorite silver screen sagas with my favorite gaming experience for two great tastes that taste great together. The board did the series justice but these days with COVID-19 still around and social distancing especially a pinball machine that every player puts their hands on then suddenly playing at home is really the smartest move. But how many of us can afford to have pinball in our homes? Well it’s as close as your console or Steam these days in the form of Zen Studios Pinball FX 3, though there is the concern: can pinball be fun virtually with virtual physics? We ran Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure through the paces to let you know!

If the original board isn’t that impressive then a virtual board of it definitely wouldn’t be that exciting so luckily that is far from the case with this table. The real world version didn’t miss an opportunity to bring an aspect of the series to life in every bumper, flipper and plunger. The artwork on the cabinet looks like a title sequence for “Indiana Jones” and the score section of the cabinet has art inspired by the first three movies and is designed to look like one of the movie posters and does an amazing job of it. The plunger control, instead of just being the post of the plunger getting pulled back is Indy’s pistol and you pull the trigger to launch the ball. It then goes out on a beautiful table that plays between medium-fast down the table with a decently long surface. There are little “toys” that move through throughout the board adding to the adventure with reprised voice roles and original music from the trilogy. As a table it has always been a favorite and luckily available at a couple playable museums we visit.

Virtually the developers made sure to work all the important aspects of the original table with some additions only available on a virtual table. There are a couple different modes to play, one is the original where they went through and reproduced all of the important aspects of the original trying to make sure all the physics match exactly what happens on the real board. If you could get a pinball controller with flippers and a plunger that would probably be the only way to make it feel more realistic without being, well, real. This is definitely preferred by the hardcore pinball players who like to do tournaments and multiplayer play because the real world physics go right down to the ball which let me say is the very key to a good pinball game. If the ball doesn’t perform right the game won’t last and there have been plenty of pinball playing disasters that plagued the early days of virtual silver balling. Pinball FX was one of the first to pull it off and they are now known for it with different companies licensing their tables through them. Pinball FX 3 comes with Fish Tales for free so if you want to check it out and make sure you trust the physics and the controls then it won’t cost you the price of one of the fancier tables and if you have any tables from Pinball FX 2 then they are backwards compatible with FX 3! The best version of the game with tables you already know, win-win.

Once you are comfortable with the physics and controls of Pinball FX 3 and feel comfortable committing to a table then Indian Jones: The Pinball Adventure is a great table to try as a first purchase, being one table it’s cheaper than a trio pack. Besides being physically accurate to the table there are multiple ways of playing, single player, multiplayer, hot seat and single player enhanced. Hot seat is when you hand the controller off to another player for up to 4 players just like multiplayer at an arcade, single player is just you and multiplayer is online play against people from all over the world for tournaments and achievements. If you don’t feel that strong about your playing there are practice modes and other settings you can do to make your play better and more competitive. The favorite way to play in our household is the enhanced tables where there are animated events that happen throughout the game that wouldn’t work in the real world. A great example are the two planes on the table. During real life play when they are triggered you hear a flying noise and maybe a little shake of the planes (or almost tilted, yes you can do that in this too), on the animated table the two planes fly across the screen. Indy uses his whip, the tank does special stuff and other things I don’t want to spoil but it really adds a lot to the game.

In this game pack there is only one table, more tables came out for the movies but this is a kind of greatest hits from the first three which works nicely for entry pricing, the larger Indy packs cost a bit more so this is a great starter, trust me, I already have my eye on one of the Universal table collections (Back To The Future, E.T., and Jaws, with Jaws being king in our house).

Pinball FX 3 Indian Jones: The Pinball Adventure is a great starter table to get used to virtual pinball while at the same time getting to live through and re-enact favorite moments from the original trilogy. If you play true blue physics and gameplay it will be the closest thing you can get to the actual table without leaving home or investing in a table at home, if you like extra fun features then you get to experience all the creative touches the design team added to the experience. You can play alone, home party style or with anyone anywhere which in these days of CoVid is not something to sneeze at, though if you are sneezing and coughing you might want to just stick to online for right now…

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

Evil Dead: The Game Review – Hail to the King

2022/05/25

Ripper71

News, Reviews, Windows PC News, Windows PC Review

When it comes to previous Evil Dead games it’s hard to feel as much love as one wants to, especially with the earlier ones that became unplayable due to glitches corrupting the save files. So will Evil Dead: The Game take us to a groovy place chainsaws and deadites or will we find ourselves toying with hopes the Necronomicon sends the game through a portal to parts unknown?

The Necronomicon was first introduced by H.P. Lovecraft… nope! None of that background business. We are here to review the latest Evil Dead game which works off a system similar to Friday The 13th and Dead By Daylight where it’s an asymmetric game built of a team working for a common goal while dealing with a player enemy whose job it is to swallow their souls. It’s PvP in the sense that one player hits you with traps and enemies they summon for indirect fighting while a team of four players work together to find key items to advance the game such as the Necronomicon. Probably one of the best ways to describe it would be as an evil dungeon master setting up the environment on the fly to wipe out a team. The Survivor side feels a lot like Left 4 Dead but the Demon side has a kind of novel feel. It feels like map editing live against the players. The Demon side is addictive to play, messing with the other players game resulted in some laugh out loud moments. At one point I set a tree trap and when the players went by it nearly beat the soul out of them and it was hilarious.

To keep every match from feeling the same there are two types of skill level-ups: temporary and permanent. Throughout a map you collect things that improve the different aspects of the game temporarily improving range or melee or other things such as fear resistance. At the end of the match they all go away but the more matches you play the more permanent unlocks you can do for the character by leveling. Not having unlocks count across all of your characters helps keep the replay ability alive as well.

The characters are broken down into classes so that each player serves a role to help the group. The key to winning a match is teamwork and take roles you feel you can best use to help everyone. The Survivor characters are Leader (such as Lord Arthur), Warrior (such as Henry The Red), Hunter (such as Kelly Maxwell) and Support (such as Pablo Simon Bolivar) and each has its pluses and minuses. The Kandarian Demon classes are Necromancer (such as Evil Ash), Puppeteer (such as Eligos) and Warlord (such as Henrietta). Each class has their own Ash character as well so everyone won’t fight over the same one.

Evil Dead: The Game is, at its core, a multiplayer game with very little single player content: It is built for PvP. There is a choice to play the matches with an AI team but the AI could… use some help. That means it will rely on server population which can be hard to maintain, even games such as Call Of Duty have a hard time with that aspect. The game will mainly be played by fans of the series and those interested in the play style and that population then needs to be maintained through updates and additional map releases. That last part is particularly important because the maps in the game are large but look identical. ED fans will want other locales of the franchise such as SMart, the high school and Lord Arthur’s castle. The graphics are beautiful, the gore is over-the-top fun and hearing all the characters doing their one-liners is gold giving plenty of eye and ear candy to help. There is also a good amount of variety in the game with the different classes, traits, weapons and abilities to keep players distracted from lack of maps but eventually some new scenery is a must.

Evil Dead: The Game is a love letter to the Evil Dead franchise while being a fun player vs. team gaming experience. The atmosphere is there, the unique building options both during play through and character permanent stat builds help replay ability with plenty of good and evil character choices making the game an addictive experience. It will rely heavy on player population and updates though so hopefully it won’t wind up being dead by dawn…