War Thunder

Pip pip, bally ho, chocks away!

War Thunder. Put simply you get a old-timey plane, you get to fly about and yell "neeeeeyyooooo - abakka-bakka-bakka" It's like every young gloss eyed kids re-enactment of aviation combat, but neatly packed into a computer game.

I've not been playing this very long, and was persuaded to play by my pals... otherwise this would have fallen completely under my radar and I'd be none the wiser about what has turned out to be a pretty nicely made game.

The general fear of any game in which players can pay for advancements etc is one that sits uneasily on most players ideas of 'well-balanced' or 'fair' game-play. I too am hesitant of such freemium style games, but War Thunder avoids this, and while players are given options for buying in game bit's and bobs, I've yet to see any imbalance or unfairness.

The game is played generally from third person, although you can swap the view about and the controls are concise well thought out and very easy to play with.

The game plays out in mini scenarios, either within an arcade or more realistic game setting, generally the idea being blow up the other guys before you get shot down. Each game scenario only lasts about 15 minutes and, so far, every game I've played has been quite exciting.

The Graphics are really pretty good there's certainly not much to shout about but the little touches like visible damage and bullet ricochet make it quite immersive. The Sounds are likewise similarly fitting, machinegun fire, flak explosions and engine noises, I could easily be suckered in given a darkened room and a good sound set up

Have A Go...

Really you have nothing to loose but the time it takes to download, and really that time can be used to grow a handlebar moustache and make a cup of tea in preparation for your approaching avionic adventures.

You can grab the game via Steam (which I did) or check out their homepage for more on their 'open beta'

Gaming Review summary:

Graphics 4/5
Audio 4/5
Gameplay 4.5/5
Features 3/5

Weighted Score: 79%

Bladdy hell lads, what a hoot!

Very easy to pick up and play, the menus can be a little frustrating, but this isn't a game about menus, it's about warplanes and explosions.

Google+ Is Not Dead.

An Interruption To Normal Posting

According to some, far greater Tech commentary than what I offer the Social Media Platform known as Google+ "is dead" or at very least "dying".

Which is Utter Nonsense!

Let me give my account, to help fuel the fire of this widespread internet argument. The recent article by Techcrunch 'google is walking dead' sparked rounds of backlash and general internet arm flapping.

"We've Heard"

The article concludes with generalisations and apparently hearsay, that is, unsubstantiated claims and not referable details to a fact. the term "We've heard..." starts 3 of the paragraphs in the article, which in it's presentation is belittling of Google and choices the company has made.

While I'm not a journalist, nor can I really verify beyond what I personally have experienced I can present that the impact of this article has been far reaching and has not fallen on deaf ears.

In my Google+ Circles (and yes... you might say I'm biased, but none the less let's crack on.) In my circles alone, which are not expansive, I've seen at least half a dozen different threads pop up filled with frustrated Google uses, rightly frustrated as they have been compared to brainless reanimated corpses aka zombies.

And now, here I am making my own personal vent against this irresponsible accusation. So I'd like to take just a moment to help put some details, some referable facts into public knowledge so that a better picture can be formed (I hope).

Hello, My name is Rich, and I'm a G+ User

I was an early adopter of Google+ and from those early days I was excited by a new platform, one which apparently wasn't hell bent on control. I found that on day one, I was interacting with people, and I don't just mean I liked their post or read something and quietly laughed to myself. No, I mean I was intelligibly talking with other people, people that I would never have otherwise met.

This early experience of real social media, one which allowed me to talk and interact with people that I had shared interests with was amazing, I'd had more social interaction in one day on Google+ than several years of having been on Facebook.

Facebook had for me been nothing more than a means of interacting with my long distant family members, but now... Now I had Google Plus and I was meeting and talking with interesting people from across the UK and around the globe.

To this day I still enjoy the interactions I have on G+, I'm part of several large Communities (which isn't just a synonym for shared spam inbox) these communities are filled with people talking and interacting, so much so I literally could not even begin to demonstrate just how alive this place with regard to the sheer number of posts and content.

I've long since left and closed Facebook, the platform has nothing to offer me, I still have a twitter account, but it's a little unloved. For me, G+ has everything I wanted or need from a social network; It has people.

Every day I log on, I have notifications of some thread I'm involved in having additional comments, every day I visit my communities page, several of which regularly have the (99+) red notifications telling me that in my absence there has been more replies than can be counted.

If Google+ is a failed platform, then please... define what a successful one would be.
If Google+ is dying, then please... tell me what a lively community would be?

Utter Nonsense

The article presented by Techcrunch was, in the most polite sense, nonsense. It was conjecture wrapped up in vitriol and spite. It gave nothing to properly support the accusations it makes and even the somewhat more influential and prestigious Forbes writes: "Is Google+ Really Walking Dead? Maybe, but Most Likely Not."

Sure there has been a lot of shaky ground covered by the teams that work on and develop the platform, I've personally been quite aggrieved by some of the choices made which led to undesirable changes to the platform.

I think however, it's fair to say that changes are not synonymous to failings. I change my pants, but they aren't a failure.

Find Out For Yourself

Come join the fun here are some gaming communities on Google+ : https://plus.google.com/communities/101776938390053976305 - PC Gaming https://plus.google.com/communities/106294677380036336853 - Gaming (multi platform)

You can even find gaming communities specific to games you enjoy, I personally am in two Borderlands communities and a League of Legends community and often find myself chatting with others.

Not a full Review... ( MiniMetro )

This breaks my style perhaps but I've been addicted to this little on-line game called 'Mini Metro' to be released on every platform ever, probably even Nintendo Game'n'Watch

It is simplistically addictive, the idea is that you oversee an underground train network and your job is to make sure the little circles reach a circel station.. the little triangles get to the triangle station and so on.

The challenge comes as there are new stations added constantly, and often different 'destinations' (each destination is a shape...) couple with that the problems that the little graphical trains you're in charge of only go so fast and other resource limiting ideas this game spirals quickly into that special place just hiding in the shadow of complete frustration but enough that you just need to have another go...

Perhaps a full review when it's not in Alpha (the designers are very actively building in the project and even in the short time I've played things have chopped and changed...)

Until such time as it's worth while here's the 'in progress' Alpha build for everyone to try!

http://dinopoloclub.com/minimetro/

Banished ... and it probably should be..

It comes as surprise to only those that don't really know me that I'm not shy of trying out 'unknown' titles or taking the road less travelled when searching out new games, and so, my attention was easily swayed when 'Banished' showed its face (Via the Steam Spotlight...)

My initial impressions were that it looked to play very alike the original settlers games, which I loved with elements of style influenced by other city-builders a genre which I'm a big fan of. A fool and his money... and perhaps this time, I have played the part of the fool.

My Impressions Were Right!

Kind of, the game was tough - a learning curve which nearly put me off but, I took to it that the challenge came in overcoming adversity a core element of 'survive and build' games, of which this is one.

(above) This is about as exciting as it gets...

I soon got into the swing of things and before long I was mildly overjoyed that I had a small functioning village of happy virtual people... but very quickly afterwards, I realised that there was nothing to do.
I allowed the game to progress a little but it bored me, nothing was happening to entertain me (and for me being entertained is why I play games!)

Push The Limits, Let's Find The Excitement!

I decided that the only way forward was to ramp up the difficulty, and where possible task myself to perform the required hoop diving for the in game achievements. At first the challenge came back again, several games which fought me tooth and nail while I attempted to find the working balance, and keep my little peeps alive and happy but then, just as before: boredom.

(above) Graves, clearly all of people whom,
 having played this game died of boredom.

I realised that I had perfected the route of things to do in the game such that even on the hardest setting and with achievements in site the game was little more than a quasi-interactive screen saver. There was no more challenge, no more effort, nothing more to 'aim for'.

It's All In The Early Game.

Sadly it all comes down to the fact that this game, appears to have little to no longevity, no late game satisfaction, the early game really pushes hard, resource management, planning, double-guessing yourself on the correct thing to do at a given point... but then, it all disappears it's pretty much all or nothing, you either make it past the struggle or not. After that, there's little to do but vegetate as you oversee the somewhat more dull procedure of 'management' stage of things, overseeing tedious aspects of making sure there are X number of workers doing Y job, at this point the fun ratio quickly sinks.

(above) Marvel at the wonder of a functioning settlement .. -  wooo!

(above) Gaze on in awe as your little virtual people GROW CROPS!!  - oooooh!

To Sum up;

I can see how this game really really REALLY could be fun, and I so badly want it to be, but there are too many things that hold me back from really being able to enjoy this.

Gaming Review summary:

Graphics 4/5
Audio 3.5/5
Gameplay 3.5/5
Features 3.9/5

Weighted Score: 62%

And you Shall be BANISHED!

I thought I'd have a game with all the intricacy of Settlers, the graphics of a modern Sim-City and I found that I've been aomewhat disappointed, while it's purely my opinion - even fans of this genre should give this one a miss.