Review of DeSmuME the NDS Emulator

Want to emulate DS games on your Mac, PC or Linux? Then DeSmuME is the application for you! Well probably don't try and run it on Mac as it is way too slow and I can't speak for Linux but in Windows it runs fine. Want to emulate DS games and dual (triple, etc.) boot into Windows? Then this is the application for you!

So far I have played Super Mario 64 DS, Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown wars. Some of the top rated games on the system. They have all been almost unplayable on Mac, Super Mario ran too slowly, Bowser's Inside Story had glitches as pictured below and GTA wouldn't even run. So I gave up and focused on Windows, everything ran and for the most part it ran smoothly. I did have a few issues with Bowser's Inside Story such as sound glitches and an error that almost caused it to crash, yet somehow clicking around fixed it.

To play these games I was using a Logitech Dual Action Controller as well as a mouse to control the touch screen. It worked well enough but there are probably going to be some games that won't work very well on PC; Metroid Prime: Hunters springs to mind. Though that game was basically unplayable on the DS anyway. The unique combination of touch screen and gamepad that makes up the DS is always going to be tricky to replicate but I found these games to be playable enough.

It's hard not to recommend DeSmuME even if it has a stupid name. As long as you are using it in Windows it runs quite well and there are a tonne of games out there for you to play. Yes there are some issues with the emulator but they are pretty minor and the team is still working on them, the latest update was released in the middle of this year. As long as you're willing to run DeSmuME under Windows I say go and get it and pick some ROMs up here 9/10.

Tower of Fortune [iOS]

Tower of Fortune [iOS] Tower of Fortune 2 is now out which means the original is free to play. It is best described as an RPG with pokie gameplay. You are basically playing slot machines, leveling up and getting loot.

 

It's a very simple game, you just take your chances on the rolls of the slots. Whatever symbol lands in the first position determines the result, any matching symbols after that just add to the result. For example a skull means the enemy strikes, a sword means you strike etc. In terms of gameplay there isn't much else to it, yet like the pokies it is some what addictive. It's the kind of game you want to play when you are too tired, or have no attention span for much more complex, interesting games.

When you die you lose all your levels and equipment. What you do keep is your gold and any of the tower you have unlocked. Dying is immensely frustrating but it does add to the longevity of the game. I do wish it was less punishing and let you keep your equipment slots as those things are very expensive but I have continued to pick it up even after my untimely death so there must be something to it.

If you want something to zone out and play I think it is good fun but it isn't something that is particularly engaging. As it's free now I think it is worth picking up,  it is way better than actually playing pokies that's for sure 7/10.

Case Blue DLC for Company of Heroes 2 [Windows]

Relic and Sega want to charge you $13 US for some Theatre of War DLC, that was included free with some pre orders and the collectors edition. Is it worth it?

You get one co-op scenario, two solo challenges and two AI battles. That seems like a decent amount of content but it doesn't take long to finish it all. In one of the solo challenges you pilot a tiger tank, which is actually a pretty enjoyable mission but it is just a rehashed idea from the previous games DLC. The co-op mission is by far the standout. It sees one player as an armoured division and the other as an infantry division. They will have to work together to balance each others weaknesses.

It's a cool addition for free but if you have to pay I think you are best to wait. It will come on sale on Steam at some point or it will be bundled with some other DLC and that will make it worth the money. As it stands it is too short and doesn't really add much we haven't seen before, especially considering that Relic release new multiplayer maps for free 7.5/10.

Tight Arse Gaming News

EA have released Battlefield 1942 for free and you can download it now on Origin. The Battlefield 4 Beta is also available for free too. Though some would say the cost of having Origin installed on your machine is quite a hefty one and I would tend to agree, DICE do make some pretty sweet games. So go get them!

Three Free App reviews [iOS, Android]

FIFA 14 [iOS, Android] It's cool, really cool; you can play with touch controls which is very relaxing or more intensely with an onscreen control pad and I like that. They want you to pay for some stuff but that's okay because you get to do a lot for free, even play as an A League team! However connecting to Origin is entirely broken both on Android and iOS, so once you get past the initial stages you can't do anything 6/10.

Pocket Trains [iOS, Android] It's sort of a game that you don't play; you wait around for your trains to get their goods to the destination, then you tell them what to do. It's not bad, it feels enjoyable when you do play it, it's just that you need to be playing another game, or doing something else, otherwise you'll just get bored 5/10.

Turbo Racing League [iOS, Android] I've had this game on my phone for months now but the movie has only just come out here so it seems like the most appropriate time to review it. It's a simple racer but it includes a lot of different race modes, boosts and upgrades which keep you coming back to the game.  It's a very highly polished game but there are some annoyances, it bombards you with ads and the tracks seem bland and repetitive after a while. Sill it's the pick of the bunch 7.2/10.

Card Hunter Review [Windows, Mac, Linux]

Card Hunter is a freemium browser based game for Windows, Mac OS and Linux (if you can get the appropriate version of flash running). You get three heroes, a warrior, mage and paladin, for the single player campaign and off you go to war. Or at least a DnD style RPG bash with cards.

The core mechanic is, the gear you have equipped provides the cards you will be playing with. You get to play one card then your opponent goes, a round is ended when both players decide to pass. It seemed really cool to me at first but as moving is tied to your race/items the game becomes little more than clever manoeuvring. Manoeuvring is alright but really you just want to pull off a cool move and watch your enemy explode, not chase them around the board.

Card Hunter has a single player campaign, competitive multiplayer and they are planning a co-op mode to be released in the near future. The single player campaign follows a cheesy story of you playing the Card Hunter game with your friend. However the game is owned by your friends big brother, who butts in every now and then to tell you that you are doing it all wrong. A cute pizza delivery girl is involved as well but it's all so silly it isn't worth focusing on. As is to be expected in such a game the focus is really on leveling up and collecting sweet loot. In the competitive multiplayer mode you don't level up. Instead you are given a team of already high level characters in order to balance out play. If the client can't find a person for you to play against you will just fight an AI opponent which I found was happening more often than not.

Overall it is a good experience but it just lacks a little depth and fun at times. The game is free and you don't have to buy anything to have fun so it's worth checking out. I think you will only stick to it if you really love waiting for that next piece of loot, because the mechanics just aren't that great 7.3/10

The World of Mystic Wiz: Quiz RPG [iOS, Android]

What a name, what an odd game. It's a freemium quiz RPG and it's actually pretty fun. You need to successfully answer trivia style questions in order to do combat damage to the enemy monsters with your spirits. Spirits are collected in card form and can be enhanced or evolved into more powerful spirits. It's an odd mix but it definitely makes it unique... also my code is 7UAGWDVD, add me!

The game gives you your standard story driven quest mode and an online battle mode where you still battle the A.I. but compete to see who can beat them in the shortest number of turns. The questing features an odd but reasonably interesting story which includes your standard rise to greatness. The name of the game takes its title from your master Wiz, like a lot of Japanese games on phones and tablets poor translation is a feature here.

The questions vary widely in difficulty from extremely easy to ridiculously hard. They do offer an interesting mix of questions with some of them even being Australia related. However, mostly they are American and this can make it difficult for anyone who isn't obsessed with Americanism. In addition some questions have been matched with the wrong answer set giving you some bizarre answers.

The pay wall is pretty good in this, it won't get in your way too much. It does have a regenerating MP bar that you use to fight battles but I've only used this up after playing for a long time and it regenerates quickly anyway. The prices are astronomical so I wouldn't bother paying anything for this game, why they didn't introduce something decent is beyond me. You earn new cards by playing the game or invoking which can be done via friend points or by using gems. Using gems gets you better results and you earn a decent amount in game. It costs you five gems for one spin but they only give you two gems for a dollar, that seems quite harsh. Sometimes I wonder if freemium games developers don't want to make money.

As I mentioned before you can enhance and evolve your spirits to make them more powerful. Enhancing is just leveling up and it requires you to sacrifice cards and spend in game money to do so. Evolving is more or less the same but this time you need special evo cards, it will cost you more money and you will get the next level of card. Evolving is a little bit tedious as you will need to have a max level spirit card, then all the right evo cards and it only results in you power up your card one step. Some of your cards do have special powers though and making these more powerful is quite a boon. Powers include, doing a type of damage to all opponents, healing your team and knocking out an incorrect answer in the quiz.

I had a lot of fun with this game and it was very nearly an 8 but there are a bunch of things that let it down. Some questions repeat too frequently, poor translation and the odd bug, not to mention the overpriced in game store are the main culprits. Still I think you can have a lot of fun with this game and if you are looking for something a bit different you should grab it 7.7/10.

What game should I buy?

What game should I buy? Is a thing I hear a lot of voices say in my head and today I am here to answer it!

Total War: Rome II [Windows] - It's so buggy at the moment I wouldn't even pirate it. It's gonna need a month before it's solid, so use that time to make yourself the new gaming rig you're going to need to run it on max.

Prison Architect [Windows, Mac OS]- The game has been released in alpha form for nearly a year now, surely it has entered beta. Nope, still in alpha, with over 7 million dollars worth of sales you would think they would hire a bunch of people to get the game out, nope to that too. Get it on sale, or don't, like Minecraft this game will never be fully finished and by the time it is, you'll be over it.

Space Hulk - [Windows, Mac OS] It's so clunky it makes board games seem like highly efficient calculation machines. I played it and then forgot it even existed. Instead, get the board game and a friend, spend all your time painting the miniatures and discussing tactics. Or don't, get addicted to crack and copulation, wind up famous on Big Brother and regret it for the rest of your life.

Probably don't buy any games right now. I mean you can get Star Wars pinball free on your idevice; sure some things will shit you about it but it's free and Star Wars, so you can't complain too much. GTA V and Watch Dogs will be out soon, so you should save up enough for two copies of those, one for you and one for me to review. Thanks!

0 A.D.

0 A.D. is a free game made by a community of volunteers and is an Age of the Empires style RTS. The game is only in alpha but they have a pretty solid build available for download on their site. The project still has a long way to go but amazingly you can already play it on Windows, Mac OS and Linux. I've tested it on Windows 7 and Mac OS 10.7.5, here's what I found.

Both versions seemed to run equally well, however, the game has yet to be optimised so when a lot of stuff starts to happen, the game starts to chug. The thing that strikes you at first is how beautiful the game is. The landscapes are incredible and most of the unit models are pretty good too, they just requiring some touching up here and there. Still it's pretty good for a community run project.

There are a lot of little bugs and features missing at the moment. One of the most annoying things is that workers will get stuck on each other and do this silly little dance back and forth, unable to pass one another. Like in Age of Empires  you can queue up units to come out in one big go. You shift click on the units you want and that will increase the number by five, you can keep doing this until you let go of shift and it will plop out 5, 10, 15 etc. The downside to this though, is that there are no warnings for having reached your population cap and this technique can really chew through your allowance. There are also no battle notifications as of yet either so it can be a bit confusing when you come under attack.

The gameplay is a lot like Age of Empires but there are a few differences. One thing I found whilst learning about these differences, is that even set to the easiest difficulty the AI is quite difficult. They always manage to find the one weak spot in my defences and raid my base. The first time I won a  game against the AI, I found the combat to be a little lacklustre. Skirmishers will run off in tangents firing at foes who get too close and because the game chugs when there is so much on screen it makes it very hard to manage.

The game clearly needs a lot of work but still, I am quite impressed with what they've done. It's the kind of project I will check back on from time to time to see how they are progressing. They are also always keen to have people work on the project so there is always that avenue to pursue, if you're interested. It's well worth checking out and I can't wait to see how it is when they enter the beta phase.

Win Total War: Rome II on Kotaku

Head over to Kotaku to win one of 10 copies of Total War: Rome II. All you need to do is grab an image of a dudesman out of the provided picture, then have a rant about him or her. Here is the shot I took for my entry.