Monday, February 24, 2020

Eye On Kickstarter #80


Welcome to my Eye on Kickstarter series!  This series will highlight Kickstarter campaigns I am following that have recently launched (or I've recently discovered) because they have caught my interest.  Usually they'll catch my interest because they look like great games that I have either backed or would like to back (unfortunately budget doesn't allow me to back everything I'd like to).  But occasionally the campaigns caught my attention for other reasons.  Twice a month, on the 2nd and 4th Fridays, I'll make a new post in this series, highlighting the campaigns that have caught my attention since the last post.  In each post I'll highlight one campaign that has really grabbed my attention, followed by other campaigns I've backed or am interested in.  I'll also include links to any related reviews or interviews I've done.  Comments are welcome, as are suggestions for new campaigns to check out!

You can also see my full Kickstarter Profile to see what I've backed or my old Eye on Kickstarter page that was too unwieldy to maintain.  Also, check out the 2019 Kickstarter Boardgame Projects geeklist over on Board Game Geek for a list of all the tabletop games of the year.
So, without further ado, here are the projects I'm currently watching as of the fourth Friday of January, 2020:

Live Campaigns from Past Eyes:
APEX: Theropod Deck-Building Game by Outland Entertainment


HIGHLIGHTED CAMPAIGN
School of Sorcery
by Dr. Finn's Games - 2 DAYS LEFT!
  • Steve Finn has a reputation for designing amazing filler games, and, having played a number of them, I have to say the reputation is well deserved. His games are always fast, light, engaging, and interesting. School of Sorcery is his latest Kickstarter for an update to an older game of his (2015's Institute for Magical Arts) with new artwork and refined mechanics. Go ahead and grab this, I'm sure you won't be disappointed! And hurry, this was a 2 week campaign, so there's only a few hours left!


Collect magical items and build friendships to increase your influence at the School of Sorcery. This quick-paced strategic game for 2 players is a newly revised and updated version of Dr Finn's popular Institute for Magical Arts, successfully Kickstarted in 2015.

During the game, players compete to win magical items and characters at different locations. Each round has 5 Phases:
PHASE I: Collect Crystals - Collect 5 crystals
PHASE II: Cast Crystals - Using your dice roll, send crystals to desired locations
PHASE III: Use Portal - Using the portal, secretly send crystals to a new location
PHASE IV: Activate Powers - Activate the powers of your permanent cards
PHASE V: Evaluate Locations - Award sorcery cards at the locations

Features:
Simultaneous Decision-Making: Little downtime
Dice Mitigation: Multiple options for every dice roll
Unique Card Powers: Increases replayability
Fantastic Art and Colorful Graphics: nice to look at
Quality Components: shiny gems, punchboard player boards and locations, wooden tokens, high quality cardstock





Pacific Rails
by Vesuvius Media
  • Pacific Rails is a train game with a theme that I really find interesting. It's about the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, which I also coincidentally made a game about (see The Overland Route), though it's just a small 2-player, 18-card game. Pacific Rails looks like a fun, historical tile game and I'd love to give it a try someday.


Return to Dark Tower
by Restoration Games
  • Restoration Games has been breathing new life into classic games from decades ago. Last year's hit for them was a reboot of Fireball Island and now they're back with a completely reworked and modernized version of the classic Dark Tower. In this new iteration they've improved the gameplay, updated the art and graphics, blended the physical gameplay with an innovative app, and engineered an amazing tower that actually works in conjunction with the app via bluetooth. I just wish it wasn't so darn expensive! Still probably cheaper than getting your hands on a good copy of the original though...


Jurassic Parts
by 25th Century Games
  • I love puzzle and area control games and Jurassic Parts looks like a great one. Not because of the dinosaur theme, which is great, but because of the interesting area control puzzle aspect of it. As you use chisels to section off pieces of map you'll get rewarded based on how much you helped with sectioning off the map. The more you help the more fossils you'll get, so there's a really interesting area control battle along with a puzzle as you try to figure out how to best section out the play area so you can build the most complete skeletons.


Migration Mars
by Enhance Games
  • I've mentioned before that I'm a sucker for a great space themed game, especially with roots in actual science. Migration Mars is about the race to build a sustainable human colony on Mars and it looks incredible. From the amazing buildings to the clean graphics, this is a game I'd love to get to the table.


Citadel Deck Block
by Quiver Time
  • Back in 2016 I reviewed the Quiver Gaming Case and thought it was outstanding. I still use it to this day to store and carry my Star Realms, Epic, and some other card games. Now the team is back with a deck box that is just as, or maybe even more incredible. The quality on Quiver Time's products is amazing and the engineering that has gone into the Citadel has resulted in an ingenious product. If you're looking for a high quality deck box, here's your answer!

Sunday, February 23, 2020

Ragnarok: Gods And Giants

About how it goes every time I face a new monster.
           
Playing Ragnarok is a process of repeatedly convincing yourself that your character is getting stronger and you're getting better and then suddenly getting torn apart--quite literally--by the next level of foe. That's not quite a complaint, but it's inescapable that while the main game is about as difficult as NetHack, its worst foes would have the Wizard of Yendor for lunch.

I spent the bulk of this last session finishing up the dungeon beneath the opening forest. The dungeon consisted of 3 levels and 27 screens, and the key plot reason to be there was to obtain Odin's spear, Gungnir, from Vidur. As I closed my last session, I was having no luck even scratching Vidur let alone killing him. I tried it hastened with Potions of Speed; I tried it invisible; I tried it under the influence of a Potion of Phasing, which doubles your armor class. He still kept killing me in one round.
         
Maybe don't eat random mushrooms.
       
I took time to explore the rest of the dungeon to strengthen my character and hopefully find more valuable items. Some notes from that process:

  • The levels aren't all randomly generated. Even when they are, there are rules set on some of them to avoid exits on certain sides of the map. The Temple of Vidur on Level 3 is only supposed to be accessible from a hole on Level 2, not any of the other Level 3 maps. However, a Wand of Tunneling or a pick-axe can undo such intentions--sometimes.
  • More intrinsics: fire dragons confer fire resistance; "blurs" make you faster (although I think just temporarily); wraiths give you level increases, although at a certain point they stopped working. Through other means that I didn't fully note, I have also acquired resistances to petrification and death rays.
        
This sounds so unappealing.
       
  • There's one mushroom that fills you up when you eat it. The others are not worth experimenting with.
  • Kalvins are horrid, hateful monsters who swipe one of your eyes out with every hit. It turns out that a blessed potion of curing will regrow an eye, but I was so traumatized by my temporary blindness that the next time I found a Scroll of Extinction, I used it on Kalvins.
  • Worse that Kalvins are Zardons. They can send out a piercing wail that hits you for about 50 hit points at a time from anywhere within the dungeon level. Guess what else soon went extinct? 
           
I'm not sure I should have this kind of power.
        
  • One damned hit from a werewolf is enough to give you lycanthropy, which requires a blessed Potion of Curing to cure. Scrolls of Blessing aren't so common that I like wasting them on this.
  • On the matter of Scrolls of Extinction, I can't be the only roguelike player who has secretly thought that if I just find enough of them, I can genocide every monster in the game. 
  • I keep finding Amulets of Quickening, which double my speed and are thus incredibly useful. But they have limited duration, and then they run out, they turn into something called "Eyes of Sertrud." I have no idea if they do anything in their "Sertrud" form.
  • A couple of enemy types are capable of reproducing faster than you can kill them. One is these little tiny things called "secitts." The second are tree creatures called "faleryns." I had to abandon a dungeon level to the latter creature when they wouldn't stop multiplying, but I gained about 15 levels trying to kill them all. If I need to grind, I'm going back there.
        
You guys can have this dungeon level. I'm just trying to get to the stairs.
        
  • The best spell scroll combination I've found is a Scroll of Blessing with a Scroll of Enhancement. Use the former on the latter and then the latter on a piece of armor or a weapon, and you soon have a +13 (or higher) item. I'm carrying a +14 mirror shield and a +13 silver sword because of that combination.
  • Some of the scrolls are "diaries," which give you hints. 
         
Glad I got this hint because I would have thought this was bad.
         
  • Something weird happened with my strength. For a long time, it was stuck at 18.99, and I figured that was the highest, but at some point it rolled over to 19-something and has been continuing to grow towards 20 ever since.
  • At some point, I acquired the "Psi Blast" power. I have no idea when it happened or why. It doesn't seem to do very much damage.
            
When I hit Level 20, I got the "Fletching" skill, which allows me to make arrows out of woods. Since "Terraforming" allows me to turn any square into woods, I basically have all the arrows I want. Anyway, I took the game's offer to change classes and changed to a conjurer. I spent 20 levels as a conjurer, skipping the first offer to change, because I hardly gained any spells. Even after 20 levels, I can only cast "Set Recall" (which only helps if you have a Scroll of Recall), "Reflect," "Draw Life," and "Illusory Self."
        
Casting spells. I thought I'd have cooler spells.
        
At Level 40, I changed to a blacksmith. Somewhere along the way, I read a couple of Scrolls of Knowledge and obtained the "Fennling" skill, an extremely useful skill that lets you combine the charges of two wands of the same type. I also got "Relocation," which lets me teleport on demand, "Ironworking," and "Taming." I haven't really experimented yet with the latter two. 

When I was done exploring, I went back to the Temple of Vidur. He still killed me instantly, but this time I had one new item: a Wand of Death. It only had two charges, but one of them took care of Vidur nicely (unfortunately, not before he killed my new companion, whose release so enraged Vidur in the first place). Gungnir was on his body, and apparently I'm too weak to wield it.
         
The first god falls.
       
I headed back to the surface and found the forest absolutely swarming with monsters. They're low level, and no danger, but they're so thick that I can barely move. Thankfully, my teleportation abilities get me through. They seem to respawn as fast as I kill them. I wondered if Ragnarok had started while I was in the dungeon or whether carrying Gungnir brings the to me.
            
My reputation must have taken a hit while I was underground.
          
While I was in the forest, I happened to note an icon I hadn't seen before. I (L)ooked at it and the game told me it was Thokk, the giantess who refused to cry for Baldur, meaning I'd have to bring her soul to Hela to get Baldur out of hell. I slipped on my Ring of Soul Trapping and killed her with a single blow. I made the mistake of not taking off the ring afterwards, and her soul was immediately replaced by the new slain enemies'. That required me to reload a significantly older game and replay Vidur's temple again. The second time, I found Thokk in the same area and took off the ring after capturing her soul.
        
Part of one quest down!
        
Lacking guidance on exactly where to go, I escaped the monster hoard by jumping through a portal. It took me to Slaeter's Sea and some other outdoor maps that kind of wrap around the opening forest, including the River Vid and the River Gioll. I can just stroll across the water because I have Skidbladnir (the magic boat) in my pocket.
           
The River Vid is mostly water.
        
I soon found out that if you go the wrong way out of these areas, you wind up in the open ocean and you immediately get attacked by Jormungand. The first time I found him, he damaged me for -60302 hit points. (I had a maximum of 452 at the time.) I tried the Wand of Death on him but it didn't work. He's also inescapable. I suspect you're just not meant to go into these areas.
          
I suppose if I could kill Jormungand, I wouldn't need to do anything else.
        
But there's an enemy that roams the rivers and lakes of this "outer rim" that's almost as deadly as Jormungand: the lorkesth. He gets like 5 attacks per round and does massive damage. He's the reason I can't just blithely stroll through the areas (the other enemies are relatively easy at my level). I have to watch very carefully for their appearance and use my teleportation ability to get to a safe square of land. There's no outrunning them, since they can move three times for every move I make. If I stand one square away from the water, I can defeat them with throwing weapons and wands, but like any monster they may auto-generate at any time. If I get another Scroll of Extinction, they're going to be strong candidates.
         
I like to think I'm skipping these shurikens along the water.
          
To the west, the world ended at the Bifrost. (Which I have been unable to take seriously since I discovered it's properly pronounced "beef roast," although I think it's cool that the Norse conceived it as a rainbow. So many things in mythology are dark and dreary.) I figured it was too soon to go to Asgard, so I went the other way. Mapping in this game is complicated; I'll explain more thoroughly in my next entry. Suffice to say that the particular section of maps I was in ended to the west at the Bifrost and east at the River Gioll. The Gioll map had some patches covered in fog and a river swarming with lorkesths, but oddly no other enemies or items on the map. For some reason, my Ring of Locus Mastery doesn't work, meaning when I teleport, I just teleport to a random place. Something is also causing me to teleport frequently even if I take off my Ring of Relocation.

In the middle of a patch of fog on the east side, I ran into a character named Harbard. He was rooted in place and didn't pursue me, but if I walked up to him, he killed me in a couple of blows. So I stood a couple squares away from him and hit him with the second and last charge in my Wand of Death. His body disappeared in the fog, but when I walked and stood upon it, the game told me that there was a staircase. Taking it led me to Niflheim.
          
Hell looks a lot like Maine in April.
         
I immediately had one of those moments that I described in the opening. I had been killing fire dragons and frost dragons in single blows, so I wasn't bothered by the "hel dragon" heading in my direction--not, at least, before he killed me in one attack that left me with -1,006 hit points.
             
My brief foray into hell.
         
Upon reloading, I tried again, taking pains to avoid the dragon, and I did come across some luck when I stumbled on a Wand of Wishing with three charges. I immediately wished for another Wand of Death, and while it worked fine against the next hel dragon, it did nothing against the unique enemies of the area, including Konr Rig and Plog. I reluctantly returned to the surface and decided to try again when I was stronger, although given the fact that I've already maxed in most of the game's classes and I have incredibly powerful equipment and near-max strength (I assume, since it's now going up by decimals instead of integers), I don't know what "stronger" is going to look like.

Still, I moved north from the River Gioll to what turned out to be the mountainous realm of Jotenheim. I expected to meet a lot of giants but mostly found the same creatures from previous areas, including a lot of faleryns, who fortunately didn't seem to be as interested as replicating as they were in the dungeon. Teleport control still doesn't work, which makes it hard to explore systematically.
        
The transition to Jotenheim.
       
After I cleared most of the map, there remained an impenetrable rectangle of mountains and trees. Figuring it must hold something interesting, I used my "Terraforming" ability to change a tree into regular ground. Inside the rectangle was a small building populated by a large foe named Gymir. He had the decency not to kill me in a single blow, but his attacks were capable of doing more than 100 damage each. I quaffed a Potion of Speed and a Potion of Curing and proceeded to kill him in legitimate combat. He left behind Mimming, Freyr's sword. I'm too weak to wield it.
          
My character doesn't just chop down trees; he changes the very nature of the landscape.
          
Jotenheim continued for two maps to the north. To the north of that was "Mimer's Realm," a map of mountains, lava pools, and fog. A new monster called "iridorns" were introduced. They can kill in a single hit by ripping off your head, although they die pretty easily if you can strike them first.
          
With Mimer's Realm, I found Mimer's Well, mentioned in the backstory as the residence of the serpent Aspenth, the transformed version of Gjall, Heimdall's horn. But I need the "Swimming" ability to navigate there and I don't have it yet.
           
My character at the end of this session.
          
At some point, while exploring Jotenheim, Heimdall's voice bellowed from the sky:
              
O great heroes of the world! I must have Gjall to rally the forces of good. Time begins to grow short. The sea rages with the anger of Jormungand. The earth quakes mightily. Loki seems ready to burst his bonds. The moon and sun shall soon be swallowed by the mighty wolves Fenrir and Garm. Surtr is honing his sword of destruction. The evil ones are gathering their forces.

To speed you in your quest, I will use my powers over nature. The lesser creatures of the realm shall grow weary and despair. They shall no longer wish to battle against your might.
              
This announcement suggests the game has a time limit (and also that Heimdall just removed my ability to easily grind). I'm going to explore to the north a little further, but if nothing pans out, I'll use my Wand of Wishes for Scrolls of Knowledge and see if I can pick up the swimming ability. At this point, I have three of the six quest items. If I can get one more, it might be worth heading to Asgard.


Time so far: 15 hours

*****

B.A.T. II: The Koshan Conspiracy was going to be next, but I'm not sure how it got on my list in the first place. None of my sources call it an RPG, not even a hybrid. I can't find evidence that any commenter defended it as an RPG. I'm dumping it unless someone can make a persuasive case. The Adventure Gamer already covered it if you really need to read about it.

That means we get to our first random roll for the next game on the list! Pulling up the list, adding a "Random" column, filtering out games I've already played or rejected, we get . . . Xenus II: White Gold (2008). But of course I'm not going to play a game before its predecessor, which in this case is Boiling Point: Road to Hell (2005). That's also the first game on my list from Ukraine. I can't find mention of any other necessary precursors. But I'm just kidding because I'm not going to let myself jump that far ahead in one go. The actual next game needs to be in the next year I have not yet played, and a random selection from that year brings us to Shadowkeep 1: The Search by the same author as the Bandor series. Meanwhile, Planet's Edge gets moved up a notch to Game 358, but I'm having trouble with that one. DOSBox crashes every time I try to leave the intro screen. So the real next game might be Ishar while I try to solve that problem.

Friday, February 21, 2020

ANGEL DEVOID: FACE OF THE ENEMY

The line between cinema and games blurred during the FMV craze of the mid-90s and many developers embraced the new technology wholeheartedly to varying effect. One such developer was Electric Dreams, a short-lived company who, with Mindscape on publishing duties, gave us the interactive sci-fi thriller Angel Devoid: Face of the Enemy in 1996.

Read more »

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Some Work From Zach

A collection of Zach's works

The Great White Ape of Barsoom
He did a good job on the white fur

Woola, the Calot

I forget which Barsoomian critter this is... 



A Chaos Warrior
Also, the flank of a Banth (Barsoomian lion)

 Chaos Beastman Army Centaur Banner


Another Chaos Beastman. Zach has an entire army of these fellows


How To Use (And Steady) 100X Space Zoom On Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra - PCWorld

How to use (and steady) 100X Space Zoom on Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra

ASOIAF: A Song Of Ice And Fire Intro

This is my new jam.

A Song of Ice and Fire Miniatures game is one of the best table-top games that I've played in a long time.  No, seriously, and I don't say this often and without good reason.  At first, this game completely flew under my radar because I was wrapped up in other games.  Recently, I have been gearing up by re-watching all the seasons of Game of Thrones to prep myself for the final season.  One night, I remembered something:  Game of Thrones actually has a miniatures game!  After a quick jog down memory lane, I remembered that CMON created A Song of Ice and Fire Miniatures Game.

After a few weeks of hard research, reading over the free rules and looking at all the minis available to me, I started getting really interested.  Now, I would say that I'm fairly frugal and really like to do my research before getting into a game and I took my damn sweet time with this one.  As a competitive tournament player, I wanted a game that had enough depth to keep me engaged but at the same time, had super clean rules with longevity in both creative design space and strong game balance.  The last thing I wanted to do is throw money at a game that won't play well.  I was never the player who got in the game for the hobby side of things, it's all about the game and the rules.  Besides, the game was designed by a familiar name being Eric M. Lang and while I didn't really know Michael Shinall, any designer who has his own tactics podcast gets a thumbs-up from me.  I am a big fan of designers who play their own game competitively and actively teach the community to be better players.

Honestly, when I first took a look at the game, I was afraid that the game will not have enough options.  I mean, the game came out with Starks vs. Lannisers in the middle of the War of Five Kings but when getting the core set, you pretty much only have these as your first two full-fledged armies.  Now, that's not saying that there's not more available now, but having played games like Warhammer Fantasy and 40K growing up, I'm sure as hell spoiled for choices.  So many factions and armies to choose from I felt like I had near unlimited options when it comes to choosing units out of a codex or army book.  Now, this is completely different when it comes to competitive list building, but the general gist is that players that grew up with GW as an option are definitely spoiled for choices.  Even with Privateer Press games, you knew you had a lot of factions to play if you liked variety because it suited a lot of different playstyles.  This was my biggest worry jumping in the game but the more I studied, the more I realized that what they currently have in the game is more than enough to get started.  In fact, seeing how there are only 2 factions in the game right now, an epic crap ton of design space and a billion other things not released yet, the game can only grow larger with more factions and greater complexity.  That makes a competitive player like me very excited.  They just came out with Night's Watch and Free Folk, and they will definitely shake up the meta and take gameplay to the next level.

I might have gone pretty hard with my first purchase.

To get you guys pumped, let me throw out some highlights that really got me into the game.  I've been playing it pretty religiously, having played around 20 or so games since I got the game like 2 weeks ago.  Yes, I've been going that hard.  In fact, I would say one of the biggest draws in the games is that games take about 1 hour or 1.5 depending on the points size and experience of the players.  Each of these talking points below will probably get their own article in due time, but these are the highlights that stand out for me.

Here's what I fucking love about the game:
  • I love the fact that the rules are some of the cleanest rules I have ever seen.  It's almost like the game was designed with tournament play in mind in that there are very little questions I had out of the initial rules package.  The game seems like a perfect blend of complexity and speed with tight-wording and streamlined mechanics seen from other minis games.  The rules package itself is very lightweight and comes with all the nitty-gritty you need to get in and start playing.
  • Speaking of speed, I just love that the game puts movement trays back on the table and the units are ready to play.  I can get a package from Amazon to actively playing with that unit on the table in 5 minutes.  The minis are hard plastic, has great detail on them, and come with a movement tray for all the units to fit snuggly into.
  • The game uses alternate player activations with plenty of play and counterplay (via rules, tactics card, tactics board..etc) that allows for active engagement with the other player in all phases of the game.  I absolutely love games that go back and forth because it not only keeps players focused, but it generally leads to more even games where choices feel more meaningful because you have a chance to respond next activation.  It's not like you're just sitting there watching all your units get shot off the table.
  • The rules are light, but the game is very deep:  Activation order matters, the amount of drops you have matter (deployment and activation), the commander you choose matters, the control of the tactics board matters, your tactics cards and the order you play them matters, your list composition matters, the game mode and mission objectives matters, everything matters.  Part of what makes a good game great is how much the player influences the outcome of the game.  Looking back at all the games played so far, I can zero in on particular situations where if I did something different, I would have won.  This is important for me as a competitive player because less ambiguity means a more direct route to improving.
  • The tactics board by itself is a complete mini-game inside the existing game.  This really deserves its own section, but let's just say that NCUs count as activations and how you interact with the tactics board influences the units on the board, the tactics cards in your hand, and how you play the game as a whole.  It's absolutely awesome how it's so tightly integrated into the game mechanics while still making a ton of sense from a flavor and fluff perspective.  When Cersei Lannister is playing her games at court, your units really feel that on the battlefield.
  • There is so growth potential in the game that I can't fully wrap my head around it right now.  Right now, we have Lannisters, Starks, Neutral (with House Bolton units!), Free Folk, and Night's Watch.  There's a good amount of unit variety already but that's without most of the other major Houses in there as well.  Where is Baratheon, Tyrell or Greyjoys?  What about Daenerys and her dragons?  Can we even fit Dragons in a 40 point game?  Is there going to be an epic game format or the possibility to ally different houses with another outside of faction + neutral units?  The possibilities are near endless.
  • You can take 2 lists into a tournament event as long as they're from the same faction.  This has got me super excited because you essentially have a backup list to play to a specific matchup or game mode to maximize your chances on winning.
More armies to come!

Before getting into the game too much, let me just say that I'm planning a series of articles that go much more in-depth with list building, faction overviews, and competitive play.  There is a lot to talk about for this game and I want to take the time to write my out my journey with you.  I'll probably cover the Stark and Lannister overview next before going more into list construction.  Stay tuned!

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

10 Best Open Source FPS Games


Time for another overweening list - the SEO godesses demand it!

Tremulous has 1.1 stable, 1.2 dev and 1.3 third party dev versions. It's a mess. Getting bots to run is a mess. Yet I love this game. I am only capable of playing 50% (can't handle moving aliens at all) yet I had the most fun building bases in Tremulous.

So you want to download and play Tremulous? HA! HA I SAY! Pick your poison:

  • 1.1 stable from 2006
  • 1.2 beta from 2009
  • 1.3 inofficial alpha from 2018

I still don't know which is the most useful for either finding servers with bots or humans. (1.3 has zombie game mode servers with bots is all I know).

Unvanquished is Tremulous 2.0 and a little more complex and hardware requirements. If you can find a better-looking FOSS game I'm all ears and eyes. Uvq has bots built-in.

OpenArena is Quake 3 Arena with strictly freely licensed assets, some of which likely satisfy niche fetishes. Who doesn't know OpenArena?

Rexuiz is really interesting because it takes care to not split the community. Assuming Nexuiz classic has a community? It also publishes on itch.io and any open source FPS is at least 10 times better than any Unity3D-made FPS on itch, so that's a really smart move - if your team has the time to make nice thumbnails/screenshots.

I really gotta compliment on the music in Xonotic. And the visuals.

Red Eclipse is still in development and has movement that is quite different from all the Quake descendents thanks to its doublejump and innovative weapons. I can't get over the blurry look though (I guess it's mostly the particle effects, maybe I could tweak them to be... sharper?). Additional microrant: some of RE music I like, some not much.

I like Trepedation's original game mode (Trepedation) but I have yet to try it against human players but at least the characters and levels seem to be hand-made for the project.

Sauerbraten is today minus 2013 years old and still popular, by comparison. And I gotta say: instaCTF is fun! To heck with the "flag dropped" sound though. Sauerbraten is partially non-free-as-in-freedom asset-wise.

FreeDoom is an entire single-player campaign. So is Blasphemer. Amazing amount of content! Once configured with mouselook and advanced sprite upscaling, it's nearly as good as an actual 3D FPS.

Smokin' Guns actually has a bunch of license uncertainties. But it looks like there's an effort to modernize it and liberate it.

Comment on our forums here.

How To Download & Install Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 BlackBox On PC (...

Thursday, February 13, 2020

Brave Browser the Best privacy-focused Browser of 2020



Out of all the privacy-focused products and apps available on the market, Brave has been voted the best. Other winners of Product Hunt's Golden Kitty awards showed that there was a huge interest in privacy-enhancing products and apps such as chats, maps, and other collaboration tools.

An extremely productive year for Brave

Last year has been a pivotal one for the crypto industry, but few companies managed to see the kind of success Brave did. Almost every day of the year has been packed witch action, as the company managed to officially launch its browser, get its Basic Attention Token out, and onboard hundreds of thousands of verified publishers on its rewards platform.

Luckily, the effort Brave has been putting into its product hasn't gone unnoticed.

The company's revolutionary browser has been voted the best privacy-focused product of 2019, for which it received a Golden Kitty award. The awards, hosted by Product Hunt, were given to the most popular products across 23 different product categories.

Ryan Hoover, the founder of Product Hunt said:

"Our annual Golden Kitty awards celebrate all the great products that makers have launched throughout the year"

Brave's win is important for the company—with this year seeing the most user votes ever, it's a clear indicator of the browser's rapidly rising popularity.

Privacy and blockchain are the strongest forces in tech right now

If reaching 10 million monthly active users in December was Brave's crown achievement, then the Product Hunt award was the cherry on top.

The recognition Brave got from Product Hunt users shows that a market for privacy-focused apps is thriving. All of the apps and products that got a Golden Kitty award from Product Hunt users focused heavily on data protection. Everything from automatic investment apps and remote collaboration tools to smart home products emphasized their privacy.

AI and machine learning rose as another note-worthy trend, but blockchain seemed to be the most dominating force in app development. Blockchain-based messaging apps and maps were hugely popular with Product Hunt users, who seem to value innovation and security.

For those users, Brave is a perfect platform. The company's research and development team has recently debuted its privacy-preserving distributed VPN, which could potentially bring even more security to the user than its already existing Tor extension.

Brave's effort to revolutionize the advertising industry has also been recognized by some of the biggest names in publishing—major publications such as The Washington Post, The Guardian, NDTV, NPR, and Qz have all joined the platform. Some of the highest-ranking websites in the world, including Wikipedia, WikiHow, Vimeo, Internet Archive, and DuckDuckGo, are also among Brave's 390,000 verified publishers.

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