Archrebel Tactics – Demo Impressions

The demo for Archrebel Tactics is out! While I did like it, as I see massive potential from a tactical viewpoint for the full release, I did find the demo a bit on the difficult and sadly annoying side. Now, my issues stem mostly from it being a demo, with heavy tutorials – that to be fair are excellent, but get a bit vexing on repeat playthroughs. The reason the demo gets to me is that it’s ironman, with a score being given to you if you finish the mission. The scoring is pretty cool, but man, no reloading in combination with the relentless difficulty does put a hamper on things when you just want to try things out and learn how the game works.

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Homefront: The Voice of Freedom by John Milius & Raymond Benson [Book Review]

In my Homefront review, I complained that it didn’t seem very feasible that it was the North Koreans that attacked the USA instead of China. However, the prequel book Homefront: The Voice of Freedom goes into much more detail on the reasons why and how. It makes the idea of North Korea attacking a USA that is on its last legs way more plausible. I was admittedly impressed by how much the book focuses on this aspect, as in building up why things are as they are. Everything from geopolitics to the economics of the world, and the new scary tech within it. While it doesn’t reach the style of Tom Clancy fully, it gave me strong vibes of it.

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Xenonauts 2 [Early Access] – Round Six (concerns)

This might come off as skitzo, considering I praised Xenonauts 2 in a recent update post about the game. After the patch fixed my issue (the wraith bug), I was allowed to continue playing the campaign. At first, everything was hunky-dory, but after a while, I started to notice some concerns. Xenonauts 2 seems way too easy now, specifically when you hit the next stage of weaponry, both for ground and air combat. I know I’m a bit of a veteran of the game by now, so that plays into it. However, the new weapon tiers, laser, and gauss trivialize the alien encounters. That alone wouldn’t be such a major problem if the aliens wear you down through attrition, yet, they don’t. The campaign has become way too passive, with very few UFOs and other missions between the research unlocking.

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Xenonauts 2 [Early Access] – Round Five

Yup, I’m back to it. You can say that I’m a tad Xenonauts 2 addicted. I dream of one day in the far-off future playing the full game before I wither away of old age and die (and probably be repurposed as food). To be fair, while the release takes its sweet time, we are closing in on that date with the latest release. Version 4.0.0 (prototype edition) was recently published in the experimental branch and I just had to give it a go. However, there is one problem. I didn’t get very far, because one bug kept popping up, annoying the hell out of me. Sometimes the wraiths bug out with a permanent t-pose. You can target and kill them by pressing down CTRL and using the free-fire mode. But any action they do beyond moving, and if they trigger any form of overwatch from you, the game/turn locks up, forcing a shutdown of the game. So, you can see why this is aggravating and is a snag on the general enjoyment.

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Star Trek: Away Team – Vulcan nerve pinch to Victory

When I was younger I loved Star Trek: Away Team, but with age, my taste in games has changed – well, at least certain time-consuming mechanics, like games resting on endless save & reloading. It’s still somewhat of a charming experience playing it now, however, being a Commandos clone there is A LOT of trial and error involved. That is not all, as this title also has a bit of a quirky and archaic control system. It undeniably adds up when half of your attempts fail due to control issues. Yet, as mentioned, it’s still appealing since it’s set in the Star Trek: The Next Generation timeline (best timeline), has nice looking retro graphics, excellent voice acting and presentation, and a pretty good story to boot.

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