The GamesWagon Podcast

The first GamesWagon Podcast is available now on Anchor FM you can also check out their site here and subscribe to hear all the latest info. The GamesWagon is a generalist gaming podcast focused on tabletop and video games. We follow our nose and tell you all about the many games we've played. The podcast will be coming to iTunes soon!

Guest Review by Nik Alksnis: My thoughts on Oxenfree

Oxenfree was one of the free games on Xbox this month. Being struck by a cold and with the house all to myself (and a quick google for how long the game takes to complete) I settle down for this adventure game (narrative game?), in much the same way one settles down with a new book.

The short version: as a narrative game it succeeds, bringing you into the already complicated lives of 4 teens as then look to escape a mysterious island. As a game it is often hard to know what the game is. There is extensive dialog options from the word go, but only sometimes do they lead to any feedback that you’ve made an impact on the game. While this approach encourages multiple playthroughs, I won’t be going back. Getting to know these teenagers once was enough for me.

The longer version: the hauntingly drawn 2D game has you play as Alex, a blue-haired, soon to graduate, high school teen, navigating the new addition to her family of a stepbrother, Jonas, while also mourning the death of her actual older brother, Michael. These details, and others such as her friend Ren’s crush on another character Nona, are revealed through an impressive amount of dialogue options, each voiced sufficiently charmingly, so you’ll never doubt the authenticity of the sometimes quirky conversations. The first antagonist you meet is Clarissa, who was Michael’s girlfriend when he died, and seems to carry a grudge towards Alex. This already interesting mix of personalities  is made all the more fascinating when Alex and Jonas decide to investigate a glowing light in the cave.

From a gameplay perspective you can notably opt out of picking a dialogue option, and are sometimes rewarded for it. I like that saying nothing at all was sometimes the best option. The gameplay also consists of walking from one location to the next and tuning in with your radio to the mundane and supernatural events on the island. It is just enough to give some sense of control, like  rolling a dice and picking pages in a choose your own adventure book.
What did frustrate a little was even though you are given so many choices in the forms of dialogue or some set pieces, how your choices effect the game, if they do at all, was always unclear. While you often seen an indicator of a strengthen bond between two characters, I was often left unsure if this was something I wanted to happen or not. This no doubt ties into the game developers wanting you to replay the game; but consider the above mentioned dice rolling, when you roll a dice you feel a sense of satisfaction when you roll high, or despair when it is low. Even though the dice roll is pure chance. The game lacked this feeling of success (or failure) for all except the key plot developments.
But I said I sat down with this game like I would a book, so putting asides these concerns, I was always pulled along by the story. Being nothing like protagonist Alex, it was an exploration into a different life that I enjoyed, and I recommend it for this alone. It gave an interesting way to think and care about others.

That said, I can get this from a book, a movie, TV series or any other myriad of ways. Should others pick this up on a Sunday afternoon, or would they be better served by other mediums? What I found fascinating was this game sat in between books and a good TV series for me. With a good book, I am there, I can feel the heat of a desert wind, or the tears of a dying friend. With a TV series, it is always about others, those who live in New York, or in a far away land. This game brought me in much more than that, I was there making Alex sassy or caring, yet I was just at arms length, never exerting my ego to make the character mine, always learning how others think. For this reason, this game, and others like it, show the power of games as narrative and I can only hope for more to come.

iOS 9.3 Review (With an iPhone 6s Review thrown in for Good Measure)

So technology promised to make everything better. There is no greater example of how that all failed than iOS 9.3 well maybe the iPhone 6s but we'll get to that. Everything feels harder to do these days, things as simple as finding all of your music, restoring backups on your phone with YOUR ACTUAL CONTENT STILL ATTACHED!!!!!!!! *Ahem* Finding any option that you want to use, and even using your favourite apps. All of this will be covered and moor.

All I wanted to do was listen to my shared music from my computer. This was always an easy thing to do once you had switched it on, there was just a big fat button you could press to find it. Now you need to touch a part of your phone, on an image that is so wrong, it feels at the least dirty, if not completely rage inducing. In fact it's such a horrible experience that it should never be spoken of again and it won't coz' we'll all be switching to Android, or at least Nokia 3310's because they are now better.

So you're addicted to your smartphone now and like the rest of us you're pretty much fucked, you could switch OS but then you need to learn a new operating system, figure out how to bring over all your content and well actually that is probably going to be easier than upgrading to a new iPhone these days. Why? Because iPhones can't be backed up properly anymore. After backing up my iPhone 5 and then switching to my iPhone 6s using said backup, I found a lot of my content was missing. Whilst there were one or two apps missing that wasn't the main thing that bugged me. The fact that it had only transferred 3 songs from my phone playlist really bugged me. Why? In part because they are the fussiest thing to get back and also because this whole process is handled by iTunes, you know, the music player. Well, the thing that once played music but now has become so bloated even it doesn't know what it does. My phone also started saying this constantly when nothing was plugged in:

When I took it to Apple they told me it was probably due to my backup and that I should wipe everything and start again but since 9.3 it has stopped doing it. 1 point for 9.3!

So how do you find an option in iOS these days? Well there is a search function, because you can no longer keep track of what features there are these days let alone actually know what bizarre name Apple has chosen to call them. So you mash in what you hope is an approximation of an option that exists and then play with a slider that maybe effects whatever you wanted affected, I think it was the GFX option, or was that VFX? Don't try and go looking for the option you want through the menus as it will now be hidden under General>Options_That_Aren't_Really_General>Please_Stop>This_Joke_Has_Run>Too_Long.

There's that mode where night time and day time play a role but really this is a feature to stop you using your phone due to the severe brain damage you are receiving so don't use it. Also it will totally annoy you the minute you are binging on your phone when you probably shouldn't be. The discolouration of Night Shift does not show up in screenshots which is probably handy most of the time but really annoying when you are trying to display it's effects on your blog.

Apps make an appearance via the app store. They are probably the best feature of iOS 9.3 but none of them will work properly under it or they will only work properly under iOS 9.3 causing you to update but wish you hadn't because now 5 of your favourite apps will never work again and they won't be updated because the app developer is dead, rich or developing a feature that Apple will steal in a later update.

What else is there? Oh yeah the battery is smaller in the 6s than the 6 to allow for force touch technology -2 points for iPhone 6s. Force touch is mostly annoying but you can set it to be less sensitive and not go off all the time so there is that -1. So overall I give iOS 9.3 1/10 and the 6s -3/10.

Dungeon Keeper Mobile versus Dungeon Keeper 2 [iOS, Android, Windows]

Dungeon Keeper 2 (DK2), was released in 1999 surely it cannot keep up with a late 2013 release, or can it? Dungeon Keeper Mobile however is a freemium game, so is it worth it? Let's battle them out and see who wins.

DK2

Value: DK2 is available on GOG for $5.99 USD or about $6.48 AUD when I converted it online. The cheapest amount of gems in Dungeon Keeper costs $6.49 AUD and this amount isn't enough to even buy a new imp. Even if you paid full retail for DK2 back in the day I honestly think you would have gotten your money's worth.

Winner:
Dungeon Keeper 2

Dungeon Keeper Mobile

Graphics: DK2 is a game from 1999 and as such it looks pretty terrible though it is playable.
Dungeon Keeper Mobile on the other hand was released at the end of last year and looks great. It's done in a simplistic style to fit the mobile platform but it is clean and doesn't suffer from the cluttering of the DK2 interface.

Winner:
Dungeon Keeper Mobile

Dungeon Keeper Mobile

Gameplay: The mobile version lets you build, which takes hours without spending gems, or battle other dungeons and occasionally defend your own. That's it. I find myself playing for about 10 minutes then switching it off as I have nothing left to do. The first time I fired up DK2 I played a couple of campaign missions then spent hours in my "Pet Dungeon".

Winner:
Dungeon Keeper 2

DK2

Wittiness: DK2 says things like, "A lost soul has entered your dungeon. Oh... no, it's wandered out again" and "You have an excess of mistresses. There is a word for keepers like you!" Dungeon Keeper Mobile says stuff like, "Everyone likes lists" and "I never grow tired of witnessing the endless abuse of another's imp." So of course the winner is...

Winner:
Neither

Yes nobody wins this one, they both border a little more on the annoying than the funny side of things, especially when repeated.

Dungeon Keeper Mobile

Creativness: DK2 was heavily criticised for it's lack of creativity due to it's similarity with the original game. However, when compared to Dungeon Keeper Mobile, which adds very little new material, limits your gameplay to waiting for a clock to tick down and throwing some minions in at designated spots, DK2 seems extremely inventive.

Winner:
Dungeon Keeper 2

Dungeon Keeper Mobile

Dungeon Keeper 2 takes it out 3 to 1, a pretty impressive score for such an old game. Whilst it does suffer a bit from it's old age it is still worth playing. Dungeon Keeper Mobile on the other hand just leaves you feeling frustrated. It's main issue is it's gameplay, it doesn't even try to sucker you in to start paying to play. With no Dungeon Keeper 3 on the radar the alternative is to check out War for the Overworld, a Kickstarter campaign that is available already, in beta form on Steam.

Tiny Dice Dungeon Review [iOS]

Tiny Dice Dungeon is a free RPG played with dice. You play as a guy with a big sword who captures monsters Pokemon style and then uses them to beat up other monsters. There is looting and upgrading, mainly of your all important dice as well as in app purchases.

The way the game is played is you roll a bunch of dice. You start out with a small amount of dice but as you level up you get more and you can choose from different types of dice. You get to keep rolling till you choose to attack, or you roll a one. The problem with the, 'rolling a one' mechanic, is that it happens quite often on a six sided dice. Now there are different type of dice, including dice that cannot roll a one but you must always have at least one basic dice that can. It's really friggin' annoying, especially if your whole team rolls a one on their first go and this does happen often.

Items are handled really oddly in this game too, you get a whole horde of these things before you even have any idea what they do. Items could be things like a comb, or a pocket cactus and they give your characters bonuses and often negative attributes. Introducing items after you have collected a bunch only the makes the game more confusing, as now you have to go back and look through all the shit you've collected. Each character can have up to four items and because each item is so vague as to what it is and what it does, it's a pain to equip them, especially because it may negatively effect your character as much as it does benefit it.

Tiny Dice Dungeon is going for a Pokemon type monster collection but it doesn't make collecting and managing your monsters easy, nor does it have particularly interesting monsters to collect. You are very limited on the number of slots you can have for monsters for starters which is very un-Pokemon-like and it does the whole combining monsters together for better stats thing which is always irritating. It just feels like you are constantly hitting the pay-wall in this area. I am not against having pay for features but not when they complicate and confuse the whole feeling of the game.

Tiny Dice Dungeon is a good idea but it doesn't deliver. The dice mechanic is a clever one but it will never beat rolling real dice. Secondly, the game feels too clunky and out of order. Rather than keep it simple, with obvious ideas about upgrading and pay options the, game confuses you with pocket cacti and other nonsense. Finally, it doesn't have the design nor high quality art that Pokemon does and although its 8-bit style is cute it doesn't make up for its other short comings 5.9/10.

[Edit - Due to feedback from a reader I had to lower the score on this game or rewrite the review. I chose the easy option and also perhaps the correct one.]

Dark Souls II [Windows, PS3 Xbox 360]

Dark Souls II is out on Windows now and that is mainly what this review will look at. It looks way prettier on PC than on it's console counterparts as this video can attest but it also has a lot of issues due to the complexity of the PC platform. Everyone has probably gotten it by now but you are compelled to read on by forces of dark magic... or something.

The game is super clunky on the PC and it will probably take many patches to get it to where the developer wants it to be, as the console versions have shown. For example in order to quit the game  you need to go back to the main screen, where it will then try and connect to the internet before you can choose the quit option. I thought it would be best to play it with a controller but at first that was a nightmare. Enemies will glitch through walls and because the game is so hard you will often exploit lapses in the A.I. I have a Logitech Dual Action controller and none of the buttons were assigned correctly, there is no easy way to fix this in game either. Eventually I found this guide to install a little app to help with this. So with this installed, I could finally learn how to play the game, oh shit, I just fell off the edge right near the start.

Frustration and a type of OCD are basic requirements of this game as you will be repeating sections over and over. I have tried playing as every class and I must say that the ranged classes have it a lot easier at the start of the game than the melee ones do. As many fans of the series will point out, balance isn't a part of this game. When you can play as a Deprived, a severely hampered class that starts with no weapons, low stats and poor armour, I think you can see the attitude towards the players here is punishment around every corner. However, I had the most fun when I decided to play as a Deprived. It helped teach me a lot more about want I wanted to do and how to level than any other class did. Plus scrounging around for each piece of gear seems to match well with the Dark Souls 2 ethos.

The thing is that Dark Souls II is based on the idea of old games, these old games were often quite short so they used repetition and learning the game as a way to lengthen the gameplay. These old games also came with beautiful manuals that explained how to play and offered tips. Dark Souls II has no manual and as such you will spend your days playing with a browser open in the background, unless you are a complete masochist. I loved the old games that came with these often quite large and ornate manuals, I would play the game by day and read the manual at night. It not only taught you how to play the game but added to the experience as a whole. I think this is something that is sorely lacking here. If you are going to appeal to the old sensibilities you should do it right.

Gameplay will vary quite a lot depending on what fighting style you go for. Even a weapon as simple as a sword will vary your fighting style quite a lot, with different attack motions, timings and defensive options. This is one of Dark Souls greatest strengths, learning the different attacks and defensive manoeuvres of your class, the weapons you have equipped and even your play style. To learn all of this you will be completing multiple runs (an enemy can be killed 12 times before it disappears, not including bringing them back with a bonfire ascetic) of the same area. You will need to do this to collect souls to level up your character and buy gear. It's this kind of repetitive gameplay that is just going to turn off some people and I think that's fair enough. I love to find new challenging areas and bosses but it's the grinding to get to them which really does my head in. Unfortunately, one of the challenges of this game, is to become patient enough to either grind till you are high enough level, or grind till you are immensely skilled at the game.

The graphics range from awesome to horrible in the blink of an eye. Textures are often poor and laid like ill fitting carpet upon large N64 like polygons. Other times the game really builds a dark and scary scene, not only through the graphics but the sounds and music as well. For the most part the animations are quite good but like all games that use melee weapons they can look a little odd at times. As I mentioned before the PC version is much prettier than the consoles but it doesn't have that next gen feel of quality to it.

Dark Souls 2 is incredibly time consuming, especially for someone new to the series like me and it's not really the kind of game you can come home tired from work and play. You will die and end up frustrated. For every problem Dark Souls has it has an equal amount of good. So I think it comes down to the question, do you want to spend the prime part of your day playing it, instead of doing something creative or productive? I know a lot of people think that about video games in general but this is not something you can play to relax. You need to be switched on and focused on what you are doing. There is a huge amount of depth to this game and there are many things I haven't even touched on yet. All the multiplayer aspects, the huge list of equipment you could go on and on about it for days. I think it is a solid game it is just much more niche than those other reviews will have you believe 7.9/10.

Warhammer Quest [iOS]

The Games Workshop board game, Warhammer Quest, has been out for sometime on iPhone and iPad but it has been released free to play for one week. Then it goes back to $6.49 AUD. Sad news for Android fans though, with no plans from Rodeo Games to launch it on your favourite little robot.

The game is played out on a map where you can choose quests, visit towns and take care of your merchant/leveling up needs. Then you will enter dungeon crawl mode, which looks almost exactly like the board game, with squares laid out and all combat taking place in a turn based manner. The story is explained to you through text and is moderately interesting. It's mostly standard RPG fair but if you like the Warhammer world, there is a little extra appeal here. You get quite a lot for free but if you want variety, you are going to have to pay for extras. New heroes, new enemies and new dungeons to play in, cost extra. This is fair enough and the characters you start with are quite interesting it's just the monsters and world you fight, that is extremely repetitive. You are probably gonna want to get a region pack if you love this game and I think they are fairly priced for what you get. Dungeon packs on the other hand seem like an experiment in seeing how much you can rip someone off. Given that this is aimed at Warhammer fanatics, the answer is a hell of a lot.

In general I find combat quite exciting but like a lot of Games Workshop's games it can be a bit erratic. One turn your warriors are carving up every enemy in their path and then the next they are missing everything, like a bunch of drunken school boys. The Winds of Magic are incredibly erratic, they can make your wizard unstoppable or useless, which makes it hard to level him up early on. At times, combat can be free flowing, which I find to be the most fun but often due to the cramped nature of the dungeons, the heroes end up walled together, with no way to move, just chomping away at the tide of enemies. I suppose it's designed like this but it happens a little too often and takes away from the feeling of choice you have as a player. Also the turn based movement throughout the dungeon can get a little grating, especially when you are led down the wrong path and have to backtrack.

Aesthetically the game is a little mixed. Animations range from well done, to immensely poor. Often enemies will float across screen without moving their limbs at all, though most of the combat animations are done nicely. The music is quite nice but it is very repetitive and it ultimately becomes grating. Again the monsters and world are a little too repetitive to really keep your interest for long. There are lots of minor niggles with the UI et cetera. Accessing your inventory by switching your phone or tablet to portrait, is a cool idea but there is something of with it's sensor code. Plus, playing on the iPhone makes accessing your inventory and abilities a pain in the arse, as it's just too small. Also you can't skip the enemy kill screen shown at the end of every dungeon.

At the admission price of free it is well worth it, I can see myself getting an expansion pack for it and having a lot of fun but having to buy the game and then pay the same again for an expansion, I would feel a little ripped off. It has gone on sale for a dollar previously and that seems reasonable too, there is a lot of questing here. You can go on endless quests if you like but they all end up feeling the same without adding some new content to it. It's a cool little game, it gives you that board game feeling and it works well on iOS. It just lets it self down in a bunch of small ways that ultimately add up 7.5/10.

3 Short Reviews [Windows, iOS]

Age of Wonders III [Windows]

Age of Wonders III is very similar to Heroes of Might and Magic VI but I think the combat is a little more tactical. That said it does suffer a bit from Might and Magics problem where basically you just amass the largest army you can and then you can crush everything in your path. Still it's a lot of fun and it just has a ridiculous fantasy setting that is so enjoyable. It has everything from flame tanks to undead dragons. Also it looks incredible. It has a huge set of skills and abilities to allow for all of this, which can be pretty difficult to grasp at first. This can also lead to unfair battles as you may have a range of fire units, that then come up against something that is immune to fire. Remembering all of this is going to be a nightmare for most but hardcore turn based fans will love it. This is what Might and Magic should be 8.0/10.

Goat Simulator [Windows]

Created out of a game jam Goat Simulator was never meant to become an actual sellable product and it borderline isn't. It will always be held up as a fan favourite and yes you can get a lot of fun out of it but only if it really appeals to you. Want to be a goat and run around looking silly, being silly, in a bug riddled and silly world? Good then that is the point. There is a free content patch coming out next month which will add a new world to explore plus a lot of other things. So perhaps with the patch and a Steam sale it would be worth picking up but otherwise leave it to the goats 6.9/10.

Sun Flowers [iOS]

Sun Flowers is now available for free and sees you in the role of the sun, looking after... flowers. Basically you need to send sun rays through clouds to water your plants and get them to grow. Be careful though as you could burn the plants by hitting a thunder cloud or missing a rain cloud all together. Then you get play around with the plants you found in your garden. There is a game here but it isn't much of one. It's all very cursory and doesn't keep my interest at all. If you really like the art style and flowers maybe it's for you but I wouldn't recommended it 5/10.

Titanfall [PC, Xbone, Xbox 360]

Titanfall, the most talked about game of the year so far and finally I get around to reviewing it. Thanks to an anonymous donor for a copy of the game. If you haven't heard Titanfall is a First Person Shooter (FPS) with no single player campaign, it's multiplayer only. It's not the first of it's kind but it is probably the first from a big studio with lots of backing.

There is still a campaign but it is a multiplayer affair and it needs to be completed in order to unlock everything. Honestly, it kind of sucks for a lot of reasons. As Kotaku pointed out, you can finish the campaign without having ever fired a shot. It's really just a set of multiplayer matches that have to run their course. Secondly, I'm not impressed with the story at all. People yell stuff at you, there is the odd interesting idea but it doesn't impact what you are doing at all in terms of gameplay. The other factor with this is that, paying attention to the story will wind you up shot in the head; it is too fast-paced to stop and smell the CGI. Finally, it's really hard to find a match, especially for the particular campaign mission you are up to. The campaign seems to be amongst the worst for this but as you'll find out, matchmaking in general is a big issue.

Matchmaking is almost totally automatic, which could be nice but it is riddled with troublesome issues. You can choose which data centre to use, whether that be Australian, US, etc. and which type of match you want to play but you can't see a list of servers to choose from. Titanfall offers 5 game modes at the moment but if you want to login and get to a match straight away you'll just be playing Attrition. It's so hard to find a match of anything else except for maybe the Variety Pack mode. Titanfall does not support cross-platform play, which I think really contributes to the server desolation. I thought Xbone and PC players would be able to link up, at the very least. Also there is no autobalance of any kind, you will not even be swapped to the other team if they have several less players, let alone if you/they are kicking arse. It's incredibly rare to find a match that approaches an approximation of even.

Titanfall Makes up for all of this by having awesome gameplay. It's frantic and the rewards come thick and fast. Whether it be a new weapon or you've just received a burn card, something is always causing you to check your build. The burn cards are a cool idea, they give you a little boost such as a more powerful version of your gun but once you die it's gone. A lot of thought went into making this game accessible to a range of players. The clever thing about it is by adding those dumb AI minions into the mix even poor FPS players like myself can build up confidence. You kill a couple of those and then you are in the swing of things. I have done stuff in this game I never thought I would be capable of in a FPS, going on kill-streaks, actually detonating a satchel charge on time, the list goes on. However I think some fudging does go into this. It seems easier to kill someone in this game then in other titles. The hit-boxes seem to be larger than average and I swear I have killed people when technically they should have been around a corner. It certainly happens a lot to me in the replays. This is not to say there is no skill in it, there is a lot to learn from good parkour technique, when to activate your special abilities and of course, being accurate enough to get a headshot.

Respawn Entertainment have announced they are working on matchmaking and perhaps in time it will be a lot better. There is also a promise of some free DLC as well. Either way, Titanfall is a great game, that just has a few niggling issues. As long as you are willing to focus on playing the Attrition mode, (face it, it's the best anyway) you'll never have to worry about getting into a match quickly but then what is the point of all these other modes? Still, if you want a shooter to play with your friends who aren't the best at them, this could be a way to encourage them to join you. In that sense Titanfall really achieves it's purpose. Go buy it and join a non-Attrition mode, maybe I'll see you waiting in the lobby... 8.4/10.

Mavericks 10.9.2 Review

There comes a time in everyone's life when they must update their operating system to the latest and greatest. So a mere two patches later and Mac OS Mavericks seemed usable. With great trepidation, a Time Machine and a (fully bootable) SuperDuper! backup, I set out to ride this wave.

I came from Lion not Mountain Lion but the first thing I noticed and liked, is that it really isn't that different. There are a lot of features Apple has listed to wow you but most of these are really only for a minority of people. Enhanced Dictation is a bit of fun but it only has limited appeal and gets half of what you say wrong anyway. It is great that iBooks is finally on Mac but at the same time I don't really see myself reading that many books on it anyway. The power saving features are probably the biggest boost to most users with LAPTOP reporting a 41 minute gain in battery life during their testing. The main features I like, are the iCloud features introduced in Mountain Lion but now I get all that for free. I think this is the update Apple had to have. Firstly it's free, secondly as much as they want you to think it, it isn't that exciting of an upgrade. Instead it focuses on getting the core things right and although it took them two iterations, in my testing at least, it is finally stable.

Oh look, Apple Maps how great! I can't wait to delete that. Oh, you can't, what a surprise.

It gives you features that nobody wants like Apple Maps and a harder to read yet still kinda ugly calendar. The notification centre is a combination of cool and annoying. I find it most useful for iTunes and extremely annoying for text messages, as it means I get one notification on my Mac and then a spilt second later on my phone. Yes I know you can turn it all off but there isn't even a simple way to default it to all notifications off. Instead you either have to do each app manually, or set "do not disturb" mode up, which will still leave a 1 minute gap where you could receive notifications.

Now onto performance. First I'll start with my 7 year old MacBook Pro 3,1. Now I have to say it does not have a functioning battery right now, so it is underclocking itself as a result. Both of these tests were performed without a battery though so they are even. As you can see in the NovaBench scores below, Lion performs better, though Mavericks' graphics performance is much higher.

Lion

Mavericks

Now onto my 2011 iMac 12,2 testing in Xbench. This time Mavericks outperforms Lion hands down.

Lion

Mavericks

It isn't particularly surprising that Mavericks only improves the newest machine but I would like to do some more testing on the MacBook Pro as soon as I can get a new battery for it. The most disappointing factor for my sad old MacBook, is that there aren't really any customisation options, out of the box, that increase the speed of Mavericks at all. Yes there are Terminal commands one could run and plugins to download but there isn't really any option to turn off the bells and whistles and just focus on the core tasks.

Overall I am pretty happy with Mavericks, it was easy to get everything up and running, even things like Logic Pro and Ableton were easy to get going again. I didn't have any issue with getting both of those programs talking with my MOTU 828mkII, so I was back recording again in no time. I also really like Safari 7.0.2, mainly because Safari 6.x can't handle browsing most websites these days. There are probably only one or two, major new features that most people will use in Mavericks, so there is little to be excited about but I think it is worth the update because of some of the more boring things going on under the hood. Whilst older computers aren't going to see an upgrade in speed you may want to upgrade them just to get around any compatibility issues you may have. For those who are Mac purists and aren't familiar with using iOS, I think Mavericks may be a little alienating, though it doesn't change a huge amount, it is a definite step in the direction of linking the two together. My official recommendation is to backup heavily then upgrade and I'll see you when 11.0.2 is out.