Tag: Software

You would think that the publishers of a long-running journal with academic pretensions would make sure they drop one issue every year, preferably on the same month. I need to track all of them down and catalog the books that are referenced in each issue. It’s probably the easiest way to get the 50 book names that will, in the end, lead to the unique text that exists only inside this computer and can change the world. There’s probably a clue about numbering and years somewhere in the already deciphered entries. I should go back and carefully read connected pages. But I’m feeling lucky, and I already have the two letters I need to input, and I decide to guess the numbers. It’s an educated guess because I’ve already linked older issues to their codes. I could also return to older entries and scan them for new details. I need to see how various theories about the power of thought influenced each other. I should create a clearer timeline that involves the major charact...

How would humanity look in the year 10.000? Is there even a planet where we can survive on so many years into the future? Kentum is a very interesting game that tries to respond to that question, while also testing our skills and wits, all in a very cool environment. We play the role of Kent, who was left in a hypersleep chamber for multiple thousands of years. What happens is he crashes on a planet, he has no idea where he is, but he knows his mission. And in this case, his focus is on restarting the human race, while trying to survive on a very dangerous planet. What’s cool about Kentum is that Kent can be cloned, so even if he dies, another clone takes his spot. Once you land on the planet, your focus is on trying and getting by the best way that you can. You’ll find yourself exploring the planet, trying to accumulate more and more items and build up your base. As always, when you start exploring in a survival game, it’s actually very scary. You don’t have that ...

Armor repair is the biggest problem for the Knights of the Round Table. My intrepid blacksmith can forge capable swords but is unable to repair more than one piece of plate each day. And as the difficulty of the quests increases, my knights are taking more damage, and only one or two of them are in top form, ready to deal with monsters or the challenge of another kingdom. I need to have 300 gold available in 3 days, but that doesn’t mean I cannot invest today to get more from successfully dealing with quests. So, I pick up two swords, reforge one badly damaged piece of armor, and assign the blades and one horse. I know my pair of knights can easily deal with the strength side of the quest; let’s hope that they also have the agility to succeed and the charm to impress while winning. Sovereign Tower is developed by WILD WITS and published by Curve Games. I played a preview version on Steam. The title combines an Arthurian setting with knight action, kingdom managemen...

The hospital is up and running, and help from the local powers should make it somewhat easier to understand and, if everything goes well, find a vaccine for the plague. My version of the Bachelor has spent his morning working with patients, examining their bodies and talking about symptoms, trying to discover which affliction is keeping them alive despite their sand plague infection. I hope to have a new version of the vaccine soon, and the plan is to tweak the decrees later in the evening and make sure plenty of people get it. Until then, I want to investigate a death that looks like a lynching. I might need to go back and do something to keep the victim alive. I also want to visit the children and do some trading and roam a few of the miasma addicted districts to get some extra resources and maybe find what I need to deal with a monster. One can never have enough supplies stashed inside clocks, and I really want to have a ton of amalgam available to mess with the...

Blightstone is a turn-based dark fantasy roguelite strategy RPG, which promises to reimagine the genre with freeform movement, environment impacts through volatile elemental clashes and consecutive runs that will further improve your heroes. In Blightstone, environment is extremely important, especially if you have the required tools to interact with it. For example, water amplifies electric attacks. Also, you can hide in long grass or burn it to stop enemies using it for cover. Unfortunately, that won’t happen in the first few runs, but as you start learning specific abilities, you’ll be able to control the battlefield with ease. The art design and environments remind me of Don’t Starve, a very popular, yet very different type of game. It looks pretty for a game that has only just hit Early Access. Speaking of which, in this early build, you’ll have access to several heroes. For starters, you have Brunn, a brawler who isn’t afraid to charge enemies that are thric...

I pushed my choppers too far, too quickly, and now a significant part of my recon ability is shot for the rest of the battle. I still have two airstrikes in reserve but will have to rely on decent ground spotting to get them on target. The Russians are pushing their tanks forward across the entire front, but I’m waiting for a big group to show up before launching them. In the meantime, my own Challengers are moving back slowly, firing all the while. I have ATGM teams in buildings holding on to their missiles for the moment, and line infantry ready to back them. The Soviet forces have the numbers, pushing a lot of BMPs on the right, but I think most will be down before they have a chance to deploy their squads in good fighting order. Armored Brigade II is developed by Veitikka Studios and published by Slitherine Ltd. I played the title as downloaded from the publisher’s official site, with a Steam version set to arrive in 2025. The video game delivers a familiar tak...

Clawpunk is one of those games that makes us reminiscent of the 90’s arcade games, and in a good way. At its core, this is an action platformer with a healthy dose of arcade gameplay and shoot’em’up systems as well. It’s a game that will push the boundaries and engage you in ways you would not expect, while also offering a variety of characters, abilities, wacky bosses and everything you would expect from a game in this genre. As you enter Clawpunk, you are entering a game world where everything is trying to kill you, and you also face multiple dangerous enemies, all while trying to regain control of your city. But in order to do that, you need to battle a variety of enemy gangs, and some powerful bosses as well. It’s nice to see that the game tries to take you to different locations, and at the same time, you also have the opportunity to test your skills. The game will put you face to face with some pretty crazy, dangerous opponents and bosses, which are unlike any...

macOS doesn’t have a quick-access calendar outside the Calendar app. Sure, you can add a widget to the desktop or Notification Center, but it’s strictly non-interactive. To navigate the calendar or edit anything, your only option is to open the Calendar app. Dato introduces a minimalist yet powerful and highly customizable calendar to the menu bar. It displays the date, time, upcoming events, and multiple world clocks, with easy navigation, time travel, date calculators, and much more.  A menu bar calendar that can replace your system clock One thing I always wanted on macOS was to click the system clock and have a tiny calendar pop up, just like on Windows. It’s why I tried this app in the first place, as I kept opening Notification Center by accident, and it was getting really annoying. You can technically add a calendar widget, but it’s not the same—any attempt to navigate or otherwise interact with it just opens up the Calenda...

We’ve seen a multitude of deckbuilders launching, but few of them try something new or revolutionary. Into the Grid manages to spark the interest of a lot of people because not only is it very creative and it features a stunning cyberpunk world, but it also gives you plenty of choice when it comes to builds and playing the way you want. At first, Into the Grid seems very similar to Slay the Spire, but it has its own distinct core gameplay loop and style. You acquire program cards and then you play them in battle against digital defenders, rogue AIs and also corporate security. You need intel and that’s keep deep into the enemy facilities, which is why you need to be extremely careful not to mess things up. Then, we have the dual-resource command system, where you use Virtual Memory for issuing commands, which will allow you to reduce randomness and mitigate some of the bad hands as well. And of course, there’s the map exploration, where we enter various facilities ...

The Terrifier movie series has quickly become one of the staples in the horror genre. There’s a lot of gore, excellent storytelling and plenty of amusing situations, too. A lot of people were wondering, how would that translate into a beat’em’up starring Art the clown, and that’s exactly how Terrifier: The ARTcade Game was born. In the game, we have Art the Clown who goes through a movie set filled with all kinds of villains. There are 7 main levels here, and each one has their own boss, visual style and interesting soundtrack to boot. The game is playable on your own but also coop up to 4 people in total. If that’s the case, the other players will take the role of Art’s troupe, which includes the little pale girl and Victoria Heyes, among others. It’s sad that they didn’t go with a story from one of the movies, instead they went with something completely different. Yet the gore and core Terrifier elements are there, which is what matters the most. Although there a..