“What did he say? ‘Spit lead?’ What, like pencils?”

Release Date: 19^th July 2011

Developer: Obsidian Entertainment

Genre: RPG

Mode: Single

Old Worlds Blues is the third and latest Downloadable Content (DLC) expansion available for Fallout New Vegas. It is set in Big Mountain (Big MT), colloquially known as the Big Empty since the scientists blew the mountain up. It is a pre-war research area you are brought to as a lab rat/guinea pig. You have to decide if you want to turn on your scientific captors or ally with them against a bigger threat.

The core thing about Old World Blues is the tongue-in-cheek Science Fiction setting in a “stand back we’re going to try science” kind of way. It exploits a great deal of the silliness of this genre such as roboscorpions, brains in jars, lobotomy, experiments gone awry. If you love this kind of humour or setting you are going to love Old World Blues as it does the job so well. If it sets your teeth on edge, Old World Blues may not be for you.

Old World Blues is better than the last two DLC offerings Dead Money and Honest Hearts in my opinion. It too, offers 5 more levels for your gaming and more of the usual monsters, characters, perks, quests and so on. You cannot bring companions to Big MT.

The primary offering of Old World Blues, apart from the setting, is the Sink. A new upgradable home. It’s very compact, useful with all three crafting stations as well as having objects with personalities. I would love to talk about them but I think discovering their little quirks for yourself is more fun. One has bartering and one is a doctor so all your needs are covered. It’s also much easier to access than the Lucky 38 but I find the water in it does not reduce your water needs enough if you happen to play in hardcore mode.

The new area to explore, is perhaps ¼ the size of the main game though I think a bit more densely packed. No equipment restrictions exist when coming to Big MT. These locations can also be revisited after completing the DLC main quests so Old World Blues gives more of an expanded area than the other two DLC offerings. However, before the main quest series is complete, you cannot leave and the only vendor never refreshed their caps or goods for me. Fortunately you can store all your stuff at the Sink for later sale.

Old World Blues also comes with new traits and you can, once and once only, change your traits.

New implants with no endurance (END) restriction are available.

Old World Blues explains some of the main game monster origins such as the cadazors.

There are a few leads into the next DLC expansion called Lonesome Road.

To be fair, parts of Old World Blues can be quite difficult. There are several of the harder creatures from the original New Vegas area such as nightstalkers and cadazores. Newer creatures, especially roboscorpions definitely give you a bit of a go. Roboscorpions are tough as nails and often come at you in groups. I’d wait till level 15-20 before giving it a go.

The main degree of positive entertainment value in Old World Blues is via the fresh setting and the personalities in the Sink.

I found Old World Blues much the same graphically as the main game. A few nice new Jazz sons are added to the game. I also found the ambient noise in the Sink rather soothing for some reason.

Plenty of the usual kind of crash and other type of bugs which seem common for Fallout New Vegas but for the first time my saves were not permanently corrupted by a new patch or DLC.

Old World Blues requires Fallout New Vegas and is available on all the same platforms, namely Windows, Xbox 360 and PS3. You can get if from Steam for $US12.99.

Old World Blues is a very entertaining and relatively generous DLC for Fallout New Vegas. Fans of bad sci-fi movies won’t want to miss it.

Game: 4/5    Positive: 

Adventure, Bosses, Blocks!

Release Date: 17th May 2011

Developer: Re-Logic

Genre: Side-scrolling sandbox-action-adventure-RPG (very cross genre huh?)

Mode: Single/Multiplayer

Version: 1.0.5

Terraria inevitably gets compared to Minecraft and I’ve done a bit of that in this review. All told that’s fair enough as both are exploration-rich sandbox games. However, it may do injustice to Terraria. For as a Minecraft clone, Terraria is pretty awful. It’s simple graphically, 2D and the building scope is limited. But, you see, Terraria shines because it has grown beyond a simple Minecraft clone. It truly fleshes out the sandbox genre by offering something new. Terraria crosses the fun of platform games with the sandbox concepts and as such is more combat intense and rewards exploration more than Minecraft does.

Terraria, frankly, is even more unforgiving to a fresh player than Minecraft was. You really need to build a basic shelter pretty damn quick and it’s not quite obvious how everything works. Fortunately an NPC, the Guide, will help you in this area. The community is quite active and, like Minecraft, the wiki is a super-important read. If you’re the gung-ho explorer type it doesn’t take long to discover than the corruption biome is cruel to newbies.

In terms of complexity Minecraft easily wins out due to things like redstone and the 3D nature. However, Terraria probably has more item variety and certainly has more different mobs to face, approximately 30, including 4 or so bosses. A real seller for me was the inclusion of Silver which I adore.

Terraria has an alchemy system which comes in very useful, especially for healing.

There’s also some very nice touches. One of them is the Bloodmoon where the moon turns to blood and an awful lot of evil walks the earth. During Bloodmoon zombies can open doors. There’s a similar event called Goblin Attack which is fairly self-explanatory.

Another nice touch is Mana which is done in a brilliant way via falling stars. Hello Notch, paying attention? This leads to spells and all the fun that entails.

The last nice touch I thought was that Terraria has NPCs and they are even useful, mostly as traders.

Oh BTW if you’re wondering how to pause Terraria you just have to switch focus out of the game. Doesn’t work in multiplayer though, of course.

Terraria is a fairly difficult game, especially as you first adapt to the game mechanics. It’s even worse if you’re not used to platform style games with the jumping around being a problem I experienced. As you get used to it though the difficulty sharply reduces and really boils down to where precisely you go and explore and if you feel like tangling with the game bosses. The more you explore, the more new and difficult areas you will find.

Terraria offers positive entertainment via the innovative cross of platform with sandbox play. There’s some scope for creativity, as for all sandbox games, and there’s a lot to discover.

Terraria is built like a 16-bit sprite based side-scrolling platform game. The graphics are basic and 2D which you can see from the screenshots. The only real complaint with the graphics is how difficult it is to spot ores. Iron ore, in particular, is just a shade redder than stone making is a bit of an eye-popper to find. Actually come to think of it an option to make all the graphics a bit bigger would be very welcome.

Terraria’s lighting is quite dynamic compared to Minecraft. Sparks fly out and plants pulse with light.

The music is a different style than what I’ve heard before and really I quite enjoy it even after many hours of play. The sound effects are mostly good and come in useful in many cases.

Terraria runs on Windows only via Steam for $US 9.99. It may come for the iOS or Xbox in the future.

In the end, Terraria puts adventure first and crafting second, unlike Minecraft. As such it plays quite differently and can be quite a lot of fun.

Game: 3½/5    Positive:

Running your Own Farmstead

Release Date: 9th May 2011

Developer: Hammerware based in Brno, the Czech Republic

Genre: Simulator/Tycoon

Mode: Single

Family Farm can easily be summed up as a kind of Sim Farm (although this ancient title already exists) or Farm Tycoon and revolves around building up and running a 19th century style farmstead. It does so quite well by balancing realism with simplicity.

Family Farm is reasonably intuitive to use and has a good tutorial built into the earlier games to help learn how to play. There is also a manual available.

Family farm has a series of game challenges called stories as well as a more free-form sandbox mode. There is also a rank system to unlock new plants, animals, areas and other goodies to try.

Goals of short term yearly, as well as longer term story and trophy goals drive each story forward. Your farm needs to be both managed and expanded and you only have a limited time to do so. Each year is broken into two seasons of spring and summer only and each season is played like a full day. You have to get all the planting, harvesting and other farming activity done in that day as well as feed your workers. Sundown stops all activity and can be disastrous if you haven’t planned well.

Thus, Family Farm has a strong time management element as well as the need to manage the farm finances. To help things along, you can expand your family via children or hire temporary labourers. There is a lot to do such as plowing, growing vegetable crops, raising poultry, breeding animals and expanding the house or farmland.

The system built into the game has skills, abilities and things like soil fertility. Altogether it is a well balanced system with enough depth without bogging you down in serious simulator detail.

I should also point out that this is an extremely family friendly game. It should be playable by relatively young people and while reproduction is represented it is only done so via the atypical pop here suddenly we have a baby, calf etc. None of the ugly side of real agriculture is presented. What is presented, is of some learning value.

Family farm is not too difficult and is aimed to be inclusive of a wide gamer base. The stories do get progressively more difficult, however.

Family Farm is not at all innovative but is well done in the genre and is good learning value in both basic farming and time management and so has some positive entertainment value.

Graphics are a colourful, fun style exaggerated almost to cartoon style which are adequately clear, except on occasion it can be difficult to tell workers apart if they are wearing the same clothes.

Good sound effects, including background sounds, some decent music.

I experienced very few problems with Family Farm which was play-tested on Windows 7 and Linux Mint. Saving the game can also only be done at years end in all games. In Linux Mint some portraits are missing.

Family Farm runs on all three major operating systems; Windows, Mac and Linux. There is a generous demo available for all operating systems on the main site. Family Farm is translated to several major languages besides English. You can get it direct from the website or via from Desura, Mac Game Store, Impulse, Direct2Drive, GamersGate and even Ubuntu Software Centre for around $US17.99 depending on where you get it.

Consider Family Farm an excellent game for casual farming play that is truly family friendly.

Game: 3½/5   Positive: 

pick up a piece of this beautiful adventure

Release Date: 23rd April 2011

Developer: Colibri Games

Genre: Point and Click Adventure/Puzzle

Mode: Single

The Tiny Bang Story opens with a great introduction sequence of the tiny bang itself fracturing the cute little world. Naturally it’s your job to set things right. The Tiny Bang Story strings together many hidden object and other puzzles with this beautiful world.

Once you start play you are given very short but clear guidance via suggestions on where to click. It helps make the rather kind learning curve even more smooth. There’s also a built in hint system involving collecting little mosquito-like insects. The Tiny Bang Story is a very easy game to get into and, once it gets its hooks into you, the graphical and puzzle appeal will keep you there.

One of the interesting ironies of The Tiny Bang Story is that it doesn’t exactly have a story. Instead the sequence of events and personality of the game allows a lot of room for your own story to be woven.

There are many hidden item puzzles and a good selection of other interesting puzzles of different styles, such as jigsaw and pipe alignment puzzles. There’s also a few mini video game type puzzles done in a wonderful basic 8 bit style.

At the end of the game you can revisit all the music and 20 of the major puzzles. Your options to configure The Tiny Bang Story are limited and simple.

The puzzles in The Tiny Bang Story are fairly well balanced and should not be a hindrance to an experienced puzzle player.

The Tiny Bang Story delivers many good and diverse puzzles and it’s unique beauty adds to the value of The Tiny Bang Story as positive entertainment.

Graphics are quite adorable and hand-drawn, despite the minimal animation. It’s a style that is vaguely reminiscent of Beatrix Potter and has all the appeal of a beautiful picture book. There is some light interaction which helps give the world a living feel. The only drawback is this game must be played in windowed mode. Full-screen is available as an option but stretches the result into a blur.

Music is soothing which matches the game style well. Sound effects work well.

The Tiny Bang Story runs on Windows and Mac with Android and iPad versions coming soon. A demo for Windows and the Mac also exists. Click on the Buy Now button on the website to see the link to it. You can also get the demo from Steam. You can buy The Tiny Bang Story from Steam, GamersGate and Playism for $US9.99

The Tiny Bang Story has a delightful and charming world to explore as you unravel the fun puzzles. Well worth it.

Game: 4½/5    Positive: 

More than Just Not Unity

Release Date: 9th May 2011

Developer: Linux Mint Team led by Clement Lefebvre

Base: Ubuntu, Gnome, Debian

Mint. Minty Fresh? You know, I absolutely hate peppermint but I do love Linux Mint.

But I am getting ahead of myself. I am that altogether too common Ubuntu migrant checking out Mint to see if I like it. I didn’t like Unity which is not only integral to Ubuntu, but also Ubuntu’s future when they dump Gnome in Ubuntu version 11.10.

I’ve wanted to try out Mint for quite a while given its out of the box ‘It Just Works’ kind of promise and positive feedback I’ve heard. Unity gave me a good push to give it a go. As such a lot of commentary will admittedly be in comparison to Ubuntu.

Installation was straightforward with the easy replace Ubuntu option and copying goes on while doing the settings followed by a sideshow talking about some of Mint’s features. Basically the same as Ubuntu’s excellent installer.

Dabbling very briefly in the Linux Mint user community it looks promising. Active and respectful with a good mix of user levels. The community is important in Linux because this is where most of the support comes from.

To make it quite clear Linux Mint does not use Unity but opted for Gnome 2.32 instead.

Mint’s menu is beautiful. Not your standard Ubuntu Gnome menu, it presents things well to be easily accessed. There is a nice search function as well as a favourites and all applications toggle. The menu is easily configured and lets you add things to the panel. It has to be used to be appreciated but here’s a bit of a look.

Linux Mint’s default programs are much the same as for Ubuntu, including LibreOffice and Firefox 4.0 however Evolution is nowhere to be seen with Thunderbird being used for email. I’ve never liked Evolution and usually used Thunderbird on Ubuntu! Gimp, Sun Java 6 and the VLC media player are also included. Gwibber is not included. I usually used Tweekdeck which runs on the decidedly not open source Adobe AIR. If you want it, you will need to install that yourself whether you use Ubuntu or Mint but it’s easily done.

The real difference is you don’t have to spend time with Medibuntu etc getting all the codecs, flash, fonts and other simple usability improvements working. It also helps that most of the default software is a good choice. Linux Mint was originally designed with this ease of use in mind. It’s focused on the users and usability not on the open source ideals, which is Ubuntu’s focus. Neither choice is really better or worse, it just depends on what matters more to you. So Linux Mint largely delivers on the ready out of the box experience.

Mint still has the same silly overlay scroll bars as Ubuntu has but I do not actually dislike them. I guess they are there for space saving on small screens typical of the devices that Ubuntu has been aiming for. Mint’s desktop does not come with a trashcan, which is easily found in the menu. Not sure if I like that or not but it’s not a very significant thing.

It is quite true that pretty much any operating system, including Ubuntu, can be changed from its default theme to something more attractive. However, it is nice that Mint’s default theme is slick and attractive from the get go. Yes it’s true, I am not a fan of brown tones which make up Ubuntu’s default themes.

Like Ubuntu, the simpler Software Manager of Linux Mint is much improved and would say Mint has done the better job. A great tool for newer Linux users.

There is only one minor criticism of the OS as I saw it. The sound defaults to mute on install which is naturally easily fixed. I’ve tried it out a fair bit but it’s really quite stable. If you find any faults yourself comment on them below.

Linux Mint is free and open source software available here. I recommend getting the stock standard 32 bit DVD version unless you know what you’re doing.

Overall Mint is very nice and likely to stay at least till the next 6 monthly churn. Where it all goes from there is a big question. There’s the Ubuntu Unity push and there’s also Gnome 3 which is still in the early stages and has garnered more than a few critics. Linux Mint is excellent for new users of Linux and I recommend it for that purpose.

Pioneering a Great Sandbox Game

Release Date: 6th June 2006

Developer: Onetoofree AB ie Rolf Jansson and Team

Genre: Sandbox RPG

Mode: MMO

Wurm is a light fantasy, role-playing, skill-based, sandbox game which is done in the first person perspective. Notch, who developed Minecraft, was one of the original developers of this game but had left quite some time ago, and Rolf Jansson and his Team are the current developers.

There are two servers with ‘Freedom’ being the most populated. ‘Wild’ is the Player versus Player (PvP) server and Freedom is the Player versus Environment (PvE) server. The two are linked but most of your stuff does not go with you. There’s also a player economy based on coins. Silver coins can be bought with real money. The coins can be used to buy player made items (which are actually worth it) and to pay for villages and their upkeep.

The fantasy elements are very light with a few fantasy creatures such as goblins , trolls and unicorns. There is also magic but it is not like most fantasy game because it has to be developed and puts severe restrictions on your character. This means magic is quite rare as well as very useful.

In many ways the role-playing and sandbox elements of the game give it a very strong pioneer and survivalist feel especially on the more dangerous wild server. Because Wurm is so open ended, players are able to assume realistic and varied roles.

The game world is vast at around 512 square km (198 sq miles) and rich with topography, structures, biomes, people and wildlife. Because it is a sandbox game it is designed to be altered. You can chop trees down, alter the ground to flatten or shape, build your own structures, mine into the ground, build roads and found a village.

The tutorial allows for a gentle learning curve. Although it is tightly scripted the world opens up once done which lets you do what you want

Being new to Wurm means you will likely benefit from the community’s vast knowledge and the Wurmpedia. You may also decide to join a village or some friends. All these will help you understand how to do things from making a rake to finding iron ore in your mine. There is a lot to learn. This game is very rich in content.

There are no NPC quests. Nope not a single one. Everything you are driven to do is through yourself or other players wanting or needing it done. The fictional and boring NPC quest driven time wasting device is gone. No more of fetch me 45 golden eggs of magical whimsy by killing 250 mystical Poobahs. And it couldn’t be less missed. Now any ‘quest’ is driven by desire and need. You want to find gold for a reason, you’re hunting for the meat you need, you visit somewhere because they have something you actually want.

Monsters are another big difference. They are relatively rare and not instant kills and there is no +10 Great Chainsaw Sword of Instant Death. Most creatures are real or enlarged real animals eg deer or huge spider. Some of these creatures are quite dangerous. Death in the game leaves all your valuable stuff on the body and causes slight skill loss. Thus death is a serious consequence and you have to go back to your body (and likely the monster which killed you) to get your stuff back. For really hardcore players in the Wild server your stuff can be looted as well. This monster difficulty and death mechanism is a huge improvement to immersion in the game. In other MMOs like Everquest 2 and World of Warcraft you can’t turn around without bashing your shield on one of the millions of fast spawning monster clones. In Wurm killing just one giant spider can be an epic battle and because it was fun it can actually be memorable. In Warcraft killing 100 is just boring. Ask yourself, do you remember many of the battles in those other games?

What I can’t do in this space is go over all the content, but let me assure you that there is a lot for you to enjoy. There are 114 Skills, 10 Player Characteristics, 3 Religion Characteristics and 4 Gods. There’s also a huge array of titles to earn. The content is enough that the question of not having much to do pretty much never pops up.

Wurm is also actively developed so content comes in on game updates all the time. The major update changes I’ve seen while playing are ships and boats, animal breeding, a great deal of graphical improvement, ambient sounds and non housing structures.

The goal in Wurm is just as open ended. Obviously survival is a plus but past that is what you would like to do. Run a village? Go PvP and raid? Explore and hunt with friends? Try your hand at squeezing some money out of the economy with traders? Blacksmithing all day? Design and Build your own house? Breed ridable horses? Build a winery and vineyard?

Wurm is a good game for positive entertainment because it can help people unfamiliar with products in their everyday life to understand the basics of where they come from as well as providing a good place for creativity and open ended expression.

I want to emphasize that wurm can be quite difficult at two levels. One is the learning curve factor. The tutorial and community can help but there really is a lot to understand since this game mimics real life to a degree.

There’s also creatures which are very tough and there’s no ‘red’ type of warning for that. The solution to that is to learn to see them before they see you and to run away like a screaming girl in pigtails if you have to.

Wurm is very much pretty and even more so at a distance. You can see some stupendous vistas in many places in the game. There are sunsets, rain, fog and lightening. The water is breathtaking and has been the best water I’ve ever seen in a game. There is one glaring problem amidst all this beauty. Player models and many creature models are awful especially in animation. They say they are working on this. It is needed.

There is the occasional music played in the game but I admit I turn them off. It’s not so much that the music is unpleasant, quite the contrary, but more that it suddenly blares out at you for no apparent reason.

In game sounds have vastly improved and are now very good with the only exception I know being fires are painfully loud for some reason.

Getting into the game flaws, there are a lot of rules on villages and other things which can detract from the fun. The rules are fair for the most part but can be hard to follow and sometimes cause mistakes.

Sometimes the interface can be a bit confusing because it is not the standard type one usually expects.

Wurm runs entirely through Java which means it runs on Linux, Macs and Windows of any flavour, and installation is easy. You can get it from here but make sure you have Java installed first.

There is one character per account. You can play for free but to play at a premium level letting your skills become high and giving you access to other features costs €10 for 2 months.

Onetoofree also makes money from in game silver spent on village upkeep for those who like to do that. You can also use the in game currency to buy premium time.

Game: 4/5    Positive: