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Headphones Review Round Up [Hardware]: SIVGA SV021, VR500, UX3000, and VR2000
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Boulies Elite Max Chair [Hardware] Review – Assemble, Adjust, Relax
What do we think of the Boulies Elite Max Chair?![Red Magic 9S Pro [Hardware] Review – The New Standard For Mobile Gaming?](/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/red-magic-9s-pro.jpg "Red Magic 9S Pro [Hardware] Review – The New Standard For Mobile Gaming?")
Red Magic 9S Pro [Hardware] Review – The New Standard For Mobile Gaming?
My Red Magic 9S Pro Review puts this incredible bit of tech through its paces to determine whether it's worth your money.
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Category: Reviews
The Shivah: Kosher Edition Review
If my spirituality could be depicted as an animal, it'd be a mutt-dog with two crooked legs. My mother is an Orthodox Jewish convert from Irish Roman Catholicism. I was raised as (and identify as) a Jew, but I still had enough exposure to Christianity to notice some key differences between the faiths. Notably, Judaism doesn't adhere to a single interpretation of the Bible, and Rabbis are the kings of question-asking as a consequence. It's this small, but important distinction that drives the story - and indeed, even the gameplay - of The Shivah: Kosher Edition.The Shivah: Kosher Edition is a mobile port/remake of The Shivah, a 2006 point-and-click adventure title for PC. The game stars Russell Stone, a troubled rabbi who heads a failing congregation based in New York City. Suddenly, a windfall: the rebbe receives word he's been willed enough money to pay off his debts and keep his synagogue open. However, his benefactor is Jack, a former congregation member who departed angrily after Stone refused to bless the marriage between Jack and his non-Jewish wife."As Stone tries to get to the bottom of why he was bequeathed the money, he quickly learns that Jack was mixed up in some pretty bad business. He begins piecing things together, and comes across more than a couple of moral dilemmas on his spiritual journey.The Shivah: Kosher Edition purposefully looks and plays a good deal like Sierra's stable of classic adventure titles, especially the Monkey Island series. Rabbi Stone needs to explore his surroundings thoroughly in order to find clues, which includes interacting with people (and making sure you say just the right thing), taking note of obituaries and photos, and even hacking into fellow Jews' computers. Eh, it's just a schmear of privacy invasion.
World of Warplanes Review
Wargaming.net proved they could make a pretty mean free-to-play MMO with World of Tanks. But why stop with World War II-era combat on land when you can conquer land, air, and sea (insert evil cackle here)? World of Warplanes represents the second of the company's three stages of domination, and it's got everything it needs to equal its sibling in terms of popularity. Except for a catchy abbreviation, that is. I'm fairly certain "WoW' is already taken.As far as truth in names goes, World of Warplanes is right on target. It's all about 15-on-15 aerial battles, and except for a brief but necessary tutorial to get you acquainted with the basics of flying and firing weapons, it's all player-versus-player (PvP). If you're not fond of pitting your skills against other human opponents, this isn't the game for you."The controls are as simple to pick up as a flying game could possibly make them. There's no throttle (save for a boost button that can temporarily increase your speed), so all you need to worry about is your altitude and heading. Climbing slows your plane, and doing too much fancy stickwork headed away from the ground is a good way to stall the engine. Anecdotal evidence suggests the mouse is the preferred way to fly, but the game supports just about everything: keyboard, joystick, and PC-compatible gamepad all work.Like World of Tanks, the game features 10 tiers of vehicles from five different countries - the USA, Germany, Great Britain, the USSR and Japan this time, sorry France - that increase in power as you advance through the tiers. The matchmaking system is designed to get you into matches quickly with teams that are roughly equivalent and have planes from just two different tiers, and while it's possible to team with friends to ensure there's a familiar face on your side, most of your time spent early on will be battling alongside and against strangers.
Tank Nation Review
In the post-apocalyptic game world of Tank Nation, the rising countries are all at war once again (I guess they didn't learn their lesson from destroying the world in the first place). But this time around, they've all come to an agreement to use tanks to solve their problems, as opposed to the old go-to, nuclear warfare. And so sets the stage for the vibrant and enjoyably explosive game that follows: as players hop in a tank and travel across the sprawling world landscape to compete in the Tank Nation Tournament, and you know, maybe blow a few things up along the way. It may be the first ever release from newly-formed studio Wormhole Games, but it's certainly an epic one.Tank Nation utilizes a number of quirky and familiar character types that players will be able to control and interact with throughout the course of the game, and their disparaging backgrounds, from Road Warrior to U.S. Military, add that extra edge of variety that is only accentuated by the wonderfully rich environments that these characters come from. The graphics, though stemmed from an overall cartoonish design, are unbelievably sharp, and the animations are amazingly smooth. Panning around the iPad's large screen and watching the multilayered backgrounds adjust to the angles is an especially nice touch, and everything in the distance has a painted, almost ethereal quality to it when compared to the bleak and destructive environments that you'll be blasting away in the foreground."But it's the actual gameplay that makes Tank Nation such a smashing success. On the surface, the game might seem like a simple turn-based strategy affair: your tank is placed on a 2D plane against various waves of enemy tanks of increasing difficulty, and you'll need to blow them all up in order to make the next batch of foes miraculously appear on the battlefield. What sets Tank Nation apart from other turn-based strategy games, however, is that you'll actually get to partake in the action yourself through simple and familiar touchscreen gestures. You'll draw and pull back on the screen with your finger to line up your shot and let the bullets fly, similar to the slingshot effect of Angry Birds. Moving your tank into position is as simple as dragging your finger to where you want your war machine to relocate, and away it goes.
Epic Empire: A Hero’s Quest Review
As the adage says, "Rome wasn't built in a day." Not surprising. Every empire is slow to build up the momentum necessary to become a world-dominating force. Unfortunately, Epic Empire: A Hero's Quest won't hold up your plans for conquest with strategy or army-building. Instead, the game's energy system keeps you waiting for ages between fights. Rome wasn't built in a day, but neither was it built with in-app purchases.You begin Epic Empire as a wanderer driven out of his homeland by bandits. Tired of running, you resolve to turn around, stand your ground, and give those bandits what for. Gradually, and with the help of friends, you drive pack after pack of outlaws away from their ill-gotten turf. In the place of the wilderness and lawlessness, you place mines, businesses, and other civilized means of generating revenue."Epic Empire is essentially a battle / building game. The world is shadowed by bandits and evil-doers, and you need to reclaim the darkness. First and foremost, you must fight. To instigate battle, you enter a hostile patch of land and engage the bad guys within. Victory is simply a matter of tapping on the enemy and hoping you deliver the fatal blow before they hack your life bar into nothingness. When everyone's been driven out, the land is yours for the taking.Winning fights in Epic Empire has little to do with skill. Numbers are key. When you go up against bandits, victory is only possible if your armor and weapons have been upgraded sufficiently. Upgrading is done by winning loot from fights and then "fusing" the pieces with your equipment. You can also evolve equipment if you find the sufficient ingredients and have coins to spare.
Adventure Park Review
When you think back to the greatest theme park simulation video games ever made, there's always been something to fit each style of play. Bullfrog's original Theme Park, for example, allowed more casual players to build a simple park, clack together some neat roller coasters, and pull in the punters. Meanwhile RollerCoaster Tycoon was a more complex beast, giving the hardcore players something to drool over.Adventure Park attempts to straddle that line between hardcore and casual, offering up theme park building gameplay that is easy to get into, yet providing tools that can be used to potentially get really deep into the action. Unfortunately the game doesn't manage this all too well, leaving an unfocused experience that feels poorly structured at times."You are the proud owner of a massive chunk of land, where an old theme park used to reside. Utilizing the existing paths and track pieces that have been left behind, you're tasked with building a great, bustling park full of attractions, hot dog stands, and worlds to discover - while taking in plenty of cash, of course.It's fairly easy to get started with Adventure Park. A tutorial teaches you how to place shops, rides, bins, staff et al, and you'll jump straight in pretty quickly. A mission system guides you through the game, giving you tasks to complete and generally pointing you towards the oodles of content that you'll find lurking in the menus.
GT Racing 2: The Real Car Experience Review
Gameloft's GT Racing 2: The Real Car Experience comes packed with a sense of familiarity. As I sat down to play my first race, I caught myself ignoring most of the tips and guides. I hardly read anything while navigating the menus because everything was laid out in the way I expected. When the game was walking me through my first car purchase, I breezed through it because it felt like I had done it all before.In fact, I had done it all before. In sports, coaches usually operate under the idea of "if it works, we'll keep doing it until it fails." With GT Racing 2, Gameloft has shown commitment to that plan, and everything works the way it's expected. Right from the start, if you've played any other recent racer, such as Real Racing 3, you'll know what to expect. In some cases, such extreme familiarity can lead to a game's demise. GT Racing 2 is polished and fun enough to overcome this obstacle."Despite the constant feeling of familiarity, GT Racing 2 doesn't assume you've played any other mobile racer. It does a fine job walking you through the start without becoming overbearing or boring for those experienced with the genre. I never found myself growing impatient with the tutorial or grumbling about not being able to skip it. I only wanted to keep racing, and I was in luck.Obviously, racing is a key component to GT Racing 2, and on that end, it excels. The numerous control schemes all work well, though the default tilt control feels like the way the game is meant to be played. There's braking and steering assistance, which can be disabled at the start of every race. The heads-up display is standard fare, complete with a speedometer, lap and position counters, and a mini-map. The one unique feature is the guide line. As you drive, you'll notice a green line on the road. This is Gameloft's idea path for players to take, thus optimizing their performance.
Tic Tactics Review
The title gives Tic Tactics away. It's the age-old game of Tic-Tac-Toe with a tactical twist, spread out across nine separate Tic-Tac-Toe boards that collectively form one mega, meta-board. You control where your opponent moves, and your opponent controls where you move, and in spite of that rather oddball description it's actually very simple to play, and also insidiously entertaining. Understand?Probably not. Okay, imagine a Tic-Tac-Toe board - perhaps better known to some of you as X's and O's. Now imagine that each of the nine squares on the board is comprised of another, smaller Tic-Tac-Toe board. To claim one of the squares on the big board, you must win the game of Tic-Tac-Toe in that square. Win a game, claim a square, and when you've claimed three squares in a row, horizontally, vertically or diagonally, you win. Easy peasy - that's Tic Tactics."But there's a catch! Oh, isn't there always? You alternate turns with your opponent, chosen at random, from amongst your Facebook friends or in a "pass-and-play" game with a real person, and where your opponent plays determines which of the nine boards you'll make your succeeding move on. Say, for instance, he plays the upper-left square of the board in the middle - you must play on the board in the upper-left corner. On that board, you play the middle square in the bottom row, and so your opponent must now make his move on the board in the middle square of the bottom row. So it goes, back and forth, until victory (or a draw) is declared.It's simple (really, it's one of those things that's easier to do than to explain), but it encourages devious play. It's not easy keeping track of the possible consequences of every move you make, and it's sometimes preferable to pass up on an advantageous square in order to force your opponent into an even more disadvantaged position. Even if a square is won, you can still be forced to play on it, but if your opponent tries to make you play on a board that's full, you'll be allowed to make your move anywhere you like.
Drive on Moscow Review
Shenandoah Studios burst onto the scene last year with Battle of the Bulge, a title that set a new standard for strategy games on the iPad. The follow up, Drive on Moscow, is now out, and the big question is whether it can live up to the billing of its illustrious predecessor.It runs on the same mechanical lines as its antecedent, but the scenario is different. This covers the German attempts to take the Russian capital in late 1941; a pivotal action that some historians believe determined the outcome of the conflict on the eastern front."The interface is grandly styled but easy to use. The map is divided into adjoining areas, and you move units by tapping them and selecting a destination. If the target area contains enemy troops, you're given battle odds and if you commit, the fight plays out. But you'll often do better to try and isolate the enemy by cutting their supply routes.But the apparent simplicity of getting into the game belies a deep pool of strategic depth beneath. There are always too many things to do, too many options to consider in terms of picking off weak enemy positions, outflanking stronger ones, and claiming victory hexes.