Tag: Software

Gia is ruthless when she has to, consequences be damned. A former partner tried to pull a fast one, using her skills to complete a tough job, only to then abandon her. I was more than happy to allow her to turn the tables and leave him to his fate, choosing to focus on future challenges and new relationships rather than dwell on the past. Rolling the dice just right during conversations helped. Now, she’s unafraid to trade shogun and machine gun fire with the enforcers of a local baron, while driving at speed through the islands of New York. Companion Cress is providing healing, while dealing damage by bumping into all enemies that get close. I’ve aced previous car battles, using a mix of aggression and avoidance, but this one is giving me trouble. When five or six enemy cards gang up on Gia during one turn, it’s easy for her light speeder to be destroyed in one turn. The key seems to be using environmental hazards and area-of-effect attacks to nullify numerical ad...

The Legacy of Kain series is coveted for its great story and revolutionary gameplay. And while we had remasters over the past few years, we didn’t get any new entries for over 20 years now. But right after the successful Defiance remaster, we are getting Legacy of Kain: Ascendance, a 2D action platformer that tries to fill in some lore gaps, while also offering some new story tidbits for the existing fans. Legacy of Kain: Ascendance features 12 levels, which vary quite a bit in length and style. One of the things I liked the most about this game is that it never tries to stick with a single formula for each level. Sure, some of them will have the platforming sections and a boss at the end. Others will focus more on lore sections with very little platforming. Despite that, it all feels very cohesive and during the 2-3 hours of play, it ends up being very satisfying, especially towards the end. The game’s story is also interesting, because it focuses a lot on Raziel’...

The villagers need more health, but I’m better equipped to purify their spirit. The cosmic demon we’re up against is using disease to try to kill them, and distrust to make it harder to actually help them. I might have to abandon one of them, which feels pretty bad. But it might be the only way to extract all bloodstones and banish this creature. I use an upgraded card to boost both health and purity for the seamstress, whose trust I already have. I will use her ability this evening to improve my deck, while also gaining a new card. She still has two levels of disease but should be OK for a few turns. I also help the butcher as much as possible, even if I lack the cards to make him trust me. Unfortunately, the herbalist might be doomed, unless I get someone’s health to 100 and get the right blessing. BLOODLETTER is developed and published by ALDAMAMI GAMES. I played it on Steam, where the title is in Early Access. The video game combines card-driven action and a ru...

When the first GreedFall launched, it was very promising for an AA action RPG, and it delivered on most fronts. People were expecting a sequel, but instead of having something that would continue the story, we got a prequel in the form of GreedFall: The Dying World. However, even if The Dying World starts 3 years before the first game’s events, it catches up to them since the story is running in parallel. Right off the bat, the idea of controlling a native of the Teer Fradee that’s captured and taken to the old continent of Gacane felt refreshing. Since last time we played as the colonizers, having a different perspective was quite interesting here. The main character’s name is Vriden Gerr, or Rootless, as he is known within his circle. Firstly, you must graduate to sage, and that means solving all kinds of issues happening inside the village. Unlike the first game where you controlled a single character alongside AI companions, here you can switch between companio...

My hero is a skeleton destroyer with very bad luck. His magic attack is demolishing enemies, especially when paired with the extra batarangs I recently picked up. I’ve managed to keep his health high and have picked up quite a few shards and extra upgrade cards while exploring the level. But my attempts to get a ton of treasure were stymied by an inability to pick the right card when playing four-card monte. The bad luck also led to some hit point loss that required a detour and some extra fighting. Now I’m close to taking down the level boss and already evaluating when upgrades I need to deal more damage faster. Hordes of Fate: A Hand of Fate Adventure is developed by Spitfire Interactive and published by Spicy Koala. I played a demo of the title on Steam. The video game combines card mechanics with core mechanics inspired by Vampire Survivors. The world is similar to that of classic Hand of Fate, a high-fantasy one where an arch narrator challenges players to ba...

My teenagers have either very short memories or bad cases of amnesia. They are willing to explore this haunted hotel even after dying gruesomely at the hands of weird carousel horses, angry mirrors, and grass-covered vampires. Right now, my trio of heroes is fighting against some trippy, shattered mirrors. I’m running a team focused on dodging, healing, and reflecting damage. The last one tends to be high risk but can quickly deal with capable enemies. Sako is contributing plenty of dodging, as well as hitting multiple enemies with her racket card. Quintin never deals too much damage, but his Flash Camera both stuns and curses enemies. Maria has an upgraded Compact Mirror, with a 50% chance to reflect damage. Getting the card in hand and playing it at the right moment is the tricky part. Fortunately, I don’t need it to deal with the mirrors.  Damage over time from curses and direct physical attacks, including a broken bottle, takes them out. Let’s hope that the min...

Let’s say you have a bunch of audio devices connected to your Mac. Maybe some wired headphones, some Bluetooth speakers or earbuds, and the Mac’s built-in speakers. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to send audio from certain apps to specific audio devices, and control their volume independently? Surprisingly, these are two features macOS still does not offer. FineTune is an open-source app that handles both of these use cases, adding much-needed functionality that’s already available on Windows. It allows you to route app audio to selected output devices, manage audio device priority, and control app volume independently, even if the app in question lacks a volume slider. It also comes with an equalizer, volume boosting, and some other cool features. Send app audio to specific output devices This is the feature I got the app for, and it’s so incredibly useful. Any app playing audio will show up in the FineTune window, and you can select which output...

Rebel Engine is bringing that old-school, 90’s era of shooters where graphics were simple, and the focus was always on how the gameplay felt. Games like Ultrakill managed to serve the genre well in recent years, and Rebel Engine wants to upgrade that experience with even more, intense levels and crazy enemies. And to some extent, it manages to succeed. In Rebel Engine, you play as Asimov, which is a robot enslaved by the Concrete Corporation. You are forced to fight in an underground arena for eternity. But at some point, you are sick of it, and you are trying to figure out how to step away from this vindictive cycle. That’s when you get infected with a virus called Salvador, which helps you go to the top of the arena, slowly, as you destroy everything in your way. The primary focus is to find Entropy and gain your revenge, even if it might end up costing you a whole lot more than expected. Although the story is not that complicated, I think it serves the game quit...

I’m clearly not using my heavy attack as much as I should, especially when facing enemies that have a lot of health. The idea is to dodge their area of effect strikes, move into a good position, and then hold down a key to deliver a lot of damage. But plenty of underlings, less powerful but more annoying, are running around and make that difficult. So I decide my version of Cello is a light and nimble fighter that cares most about dodging. Basically, I want to make sure no enemy can land a hit and only use quick strikes to whittle down their hit point reserves. The relatively small combat space doesn’t make it easy. Sometimes three areas of effect attacks arrive at the same time, making even the best rhythmic dodging ineffective. Once all the enemies are down, I lose close to a fifth of my own health. But Cello gets an upgrade that gives her 300 more hit points. I hope to get even more as I explore the forest, which should make it easier to deal with the coming bos...

The mummies have a bad habit of spitting poison all over the place. Spreading out my heroes is a way to avoid it, but cleric Ignatius still has to regularly use his two main healing abilities. It’s important to make sure our relatively fragile mage stays up, throwing chain lightning and fireballs around to thin the enemy ranks. It takes six turns to deal with the bandaged-up enemies, and everyone is alive. They get enough experience to level up, and I get to choose new abilities for all. Resting at a campfire offers another opportunity to improve battle skills. And then it’s time to face a mini-boss, who will probably drop a powerful artifact. The demonic Harlequin can summon allies every two turns, which is a problem. It crowds the tight combat arena and makes it harder to strike it. Alistair swings a heavy sword around to take the henchmen out, but he also suffers plenty of damage. Rogue Elara poisons the mini-boss when she can, using both a special ability and h...