The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham [Book Review]

If you ever wondered what it would be like to live under the alien threat from X-com: Terror From the Deep as a civilian, I have a book for you. Now, things do not line up perfectly, since they are set in different time periods; 1950 in the book, versus 2040 in the game. There are other things as well since The Kraken Wakes (Out of the Deeps in the US) is not an official book based on the X-com brand – but I got to say, it’s comes pretty damn close!

Continue reading →

Watch Dogs: Legion – Bloodline

The original Watch Dogs: Legion (Watch Dogs 3) was a bit of a hit or miss. It had serious potential with its sandbox nature of recruiting whoever you wanted off the street to work for your little hacker revolution. However, the implementation wasn’t great. It suffered from weird randomization, like having characters’ looks not matching the voice, massive story issues, and the lack of a central protagonist. The near-future City of London was and still is awesome. It has this cool dystopian feeling to it, with high surveillance and military-esque police patrolling the streets. It got a surprising number of things right. For example, the checkpoint system that now is a reality in London – all for the concerns of the mythical “environment”. All in all, a realistic depiction of the WEF future we all have to look forward to, so what’s not to like? Everyone enjoys a good despair from time to time.

Continue reading →

Colony Ship – A few thoughts

I’m sorry for teasing a review like this, but as it is, I’m not sure there will be one. See, this game is just not made for me, at all. If it was a CYOA (Choose Your Own Adventure) instead of being classified as an RPG, I wouldn’t have any problems with the game. However, it isn’t. Colony Ship is much like Iron Tower Studios’ former game The Age of Decadence – in that it’s very rigid when it comes to class building, progression, and skill checks. Maybe less so, but the fundamental game design remains the same. An additional note to this article that should be regarded; Don’t treat this piece as a final critique, as I don’t know if any of my observations change for the better later in the game. These are just my initial observations and thoughts.

Continue reading →

Stargate: Adventure – The Grey Vikings

To say that I understand the Stargate lore from the TV show is to highly overestimate my knowledge of this piece of fiction, especially after playing Stargate: Adventure made by Sektor 13. However, I do know the general gist of things, and I like the character Jack O’Neill (much because of the MacGyver days). The problem here, while the game feels very authentic to the source material, is that it drops you smack down in the middle (or maybe the ending of things?) – which makes lore newbies like me feel pretty out of place. Honestly, though, it’s no problem. This is a free fan-made point-and-click adventure game, that is made for the dedicated followers of the show. Cred is where it’s due.

Continue reading →

Starship Troopers: Terran Command [DLC] Raising Hell – The Gehenna Rumble

The bugs are back with a vengeance and this time they are harassing humanity on the volcanic planet of Gehenna. Raising Hell is more of the same, however with the killing now taking place in an extremely hostile environment – for both man and bug. There is more than just the mobile infantry fighting the crawly critters this time around, as private money-seeking mercenaries join in on the fun. With money being their primary concern, these units come with a different flavor. They are as good at destroying bugs as their brothers in the Marines, making the case that the promise of coin can be a potent motivator indeed.

Continue reading →