Long-range missile salvos are always a good idea. Especially against bigger mechs detected early. For my Warhawk, I’ve focused on pulse lasers, but a Summoner and Gargoyle are pounding the spheroids while we close the distance. The enemy has also placed mines and is bringing in rocket-carrying vehicles, but those pose less of a threat, especially once they get run over. Three waves of Com Guards managed to take one arm off the Mad Dog that I sent to deal with some light enemy mechs and strip plenty of armor from the rest of my Star.  Now we’re at the dropship we came to investigate, and the welcoming committee quickly engaged. The big problem is an elite Atlas that’s hanging in the back, carefully picking his shots. I give my four pilots orders to engage the rest of the enemy battlemechs and try to swing around and get the Atlas from the side. Pushing through incoming fire, my Warhawk loses one leg, which is a serious problem when trying to flank at speed. But my l...

The Crazy Hyper-Dungeon Chronicles is a game fueled by nostalgia and those old-school D&D experiences we had in the 80s and 90s. At its core, the game brings a cartoony, top down 2D world that we explore and which is very reminiscent of games like Ultima, for example, or the more recent Dungeons of Dreadrock. You have a character that needs to go through various levels and reach the final one, while staying alive. And as you do that, you’re also accumulating a lot of items, not to mention you are battling all kinds of enemies. But that’s what makes The Crazy Hyper-Dungeon Chronicles fun, because it encourages you to test out things, try out new stuff, and also see what works for you. The primary goal in The Crazy Hyper-Dungeon Chronicles is to try and reach the 50th floor. That’s where you will find a legendary relic. But as you can imagine, getting there is not an easy thing, and it can take quite a bit of time to get there. You’ll have to deal with necromancers, ...

Surviving in a world that’s damaged by various cataclysms can be inherently dangerous and tough to do. But in StarRupture, that’s our main goal, along with building a massive industrial complex that allows you to extract resources and produce goods. Exploring and colonizing a dangerous planet is never easy, but that’s where a game like StarRupture manages to shine. Built by the excellent minds behind Green Hell, the game is a unique take on a very popular genre, established by Satisfactory. However, it also adds unique survival elements into the mix, which actually make the gameplay feel a lot more interesting. Not only are you continually trying to find resources, but you also need to fight all kinds of monsters while protecting your base. Thankfully, the core gameplay is easy to understand, even if the title becomes quite overwhelming as you play, with new types of machinery and resources being something you have to deal with. I also like the fact that you’re con...

There are so many roguelike games these days that it can be hard to pinpoint one which is immersive, engaging, but also a whole lot of fun to replay over and over. Aris Arcanum strives to be such a project, since it brings us a Victorian Gothic-inspired world, which is both very beautiful and haunting at the same time. We play the role of Clyde Colgrave, a scholar which has a degenerative disease, and he uses a cane to walk around. However, he’s the only person that can protect the Aris Library from the various attackers. And the interesting thing is that despite this mishap, you’re still a very powerful mage, not to mention you can increase your skillset and improve even further, which is super exciting. The art design is definitely a standout in this game. We have a very beautifully made game world, with lots of detail, and the cool thing is that rooms all have their own innate details. It truly feels like a library, but a very strange one, filled with monsters t...

I should have paid more attention to the forest. A well-positioned anti-tank Soviet unit managed to slam a few missiles into my Canadian Leopards, just as they were trying hard to deal with an incoming stream of Russian tanks. My plan was to get these tanks into a better position, but I failed to provide adequate reconnaissance assets, which led to the ambush. Worse, this happens with another 10 minutes to go before I can issue orders. This means four tanks continue to move forward, still taking fire from two directions, while another group is falling back after reaching their acceptable losses threshold. My recon mistake might lead to more deaths among my Canadian force. Fortunately, my own AT teams and a block of mechanized infantry are delivering highly effective fire from good defensive positions and keeping another group of Commie tanks and a big stream of APCs at bay. Some solid defensive artillery fire will soon make it almost impossible for the enemy force ...

The idea of creating your own kingdom and living your own medieval fantasy is something we’ve all had in mind, especially if we enjoy medieval life simulators or city builders. Dungeons & Kingdoms is a game that tries to add a unique perspective, since it combines the kingdom building aspect with survival elements, infrastructure building and so on. Combining so many elements feels refreshing, but also challenging, since not everything works great, at least for the time being. In Dungeons & Kingdoms, you get stranded and you need to figure out how to survive in this new place. You get to create your own shelter, and then along with the other people near you, it’s time to start gathering more stuff and creating a village. The location is not that friendly, either, it’s filled with monsters, and you really have to figure out how to access the best resources, while also staying safe and not dying. Like any survival game, Dungeons & Kingdoms brings you very humble begi...

I lasted almost four minutes in endless mode. A fully upgraded Sanguine Pool, backed up by fire mice swarms and soul chakrams, is destroying tons of enemies every few seconds. They are boosted by a passive ability that reduces the time between attacks and another that boosts criticals. My problem is that I also picked Infernal Breath as a core attack, and I’m failing to use it effectively. And I also hit plenty of randomized totems that failed to deliver high-quality upgrades. Only two of my attacks are over level seven, and I was forced to get some sub-optimal passives. Kitting, the classic strategy for the genre, is hard in endless mode because there are just so many enemies. The dash helps, but I haven’t reduced its cooldown. I focus on avoiding any incoming projectiles and all enemies, but I still get hit from time to time, and my health regen is not powerful enough to compensate. When my vampire dies, I will have the essence to get a solid permanent upgrade fo...

If there’s something that grinds my gears on macOS, it’s app switching with Cmd+Tab. If we compare it to Alt+Tab on Windows, it’s inferior in almost every way. It’s strictly app-based, so you can’t switch between an app’s windows, you can’t bring up minimized windows, there are no thumbnails, no window controls, and the list goes on. AltTab was created to emulate the functionality available in Microsoft’s OS, but it has now far exceeded those capabilities. Aside from providing a far better window switching experience, every hotkey, behavior, and UI element is customizable; if there’s anything you don’t like, you can almost certainly change it. It’s also open source, which is always nice. Windows-style Alt-tabbing on macOS If you’re switching over from Windows, this app is exactly what you need. It’s window-based, so you will see every app window, not just the applications themselves. What would require two separate shortcuts on macOS (Cmd+...

Even by Apple's standards, Archive Utility is a simplistic tool. It can only extract the contents of a few common archive formats and compress files into ZIP archives, with absolutely no other features or customization. The good news is that we have an amazing third-party alternative—Keka. It’s everything Archive Utility should have been. It integrates seamlessly into the OS and offers a ton of additional features, extended format support, customization, and more, while being just as easy to use as the built-in utility, and free to boot. It can work just like Archive Utility, when you need it to The problem with many third-party apps is that they’re just not as seamless as the built-in archiver. You have to launch them, drop files in a window, maybe even specify where the output should be saved, etc. A lot of work just for extracting or creating an archive. Keka, on the other hand, can be configured to emulate the standard macOS workflow. You ope...

If there's one thing I missed when switching over from Windows, it was the simplicity and convenience of Notepad. TextEdit just tries to do too much for my taste, and macOS doesn't really have a good option for quick notes without complications. Plain Text Editor is exactly what I always wanted TextEdit to be. Plain text, no formatting, a bare-bones UI, and just a few quality-of-life features that help with your writing without becoming distractions themselves. Elegant user interface At first glance, there’s not much there. A basic window, title bar, word and character count, plus a bank page for writing. The title bar and statistics can even be disabled, leaving only a massive void for you to fill in. If you’re not a fan of the translucent background, you can make it opaque, which is my preference as well. This setting, along with almost everything else, is handled either from the app’s preferences or app menu, leaving the editor itself free of ...

It’s surprisingly difficult to get your hands on a macOS installer, especially if you need a specific format, or even worse, want to configure an older Mac. Firmware files are easier to get, but it’s still a bit of a hassle. Mist has become a valuable tool in the arsenal of IT departments, administrators, or even just regular users who need to install older macOS versions, create bootable USBs, set up virtual machines, or restore an Apple Silicon Mac. It’s an open-source app that provides direct download links to IPSW firmware files and can create installers for macOS editions going all the way back to Lion. It can also help you set up bootable USB installers, though some limitations apply if you’re running it on an Apple Silicon Mac. Get macOS installers in multiple formats Most people will get the app for its ability to build installers. It can generate a regular app bundle, .dmg disk image, .iso file, and .pkg installer. Various use cases bene...

Sometimes, nuclear bombs cannot solve a strategic problem. Strategic bombers have been dropping nukes on Soviet divisions for a while, but they have enough industry to keep pumping replacements out. Dropping more nuclear bombs on their cities helps, but to actually destroy the U.S.S.R., some conventional armor thrusts are needed. That means that I need to first ensure air superiority, so I need more bases and fighters, while backing my armor with anti-air assets. All this stuff is competing in the industry queue with the nukes I need to make sure a Soviet counterattack is contained. Thankfully, the Russian far east has limited defenses, allowing for a second front that should make it easier to push into Eastern Europe. ICBM: Escalation - United States of Annihilation is developed by SoftWarWare and published by Slitherine Ltd. This is the second major downloadable content pack for the strategy game, which delivers an alternate history campaign focused on the United...

Over the past few years, we’ve seen quite a resurgence of SpongeBob SquarePants games. We’ve had the Patrick Star game, The Cosmic Shake and also Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated. Now with SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide, we have the epitome of that 3D platforming goodness, with a very engaging story and some of the best platforming I’ve seen in quite some time. The premise of SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide is pretty simple: you have the Flying Dutchman and King Neptune unleashing ghosts all over Bikini Bottom, and you need to do everything you can to stop them. The addition of ghosts adds a unique system here, because you can easily switch between Patrick and SpongeBob. Once you switch, the previous character you were using is near you, in the form of a ghost. It adds to the gameplay, while also making sense lore-wise. Titans of the Tide keeps a very similar layout of Bikini Bottom and the same cartoony visual style, making it a rather fa...

When I first tried Pearcleaner a couple of years ago, it was a basic and somewhat flawed app uninstaller. Since then, it has evolved into such a powerful and versatile maintenance application that it makes you wonder how it’s still available for free. With every release, more and more features are added, to the point where you can’t even call it an uninstaller anymore, or even just an all-purpose cleanup tool. It integrates the complete functionality of many free and paid apps, and it’s quickly becoming indispensable. Remove apps and leftover files Naturally, this is still the app’s bread and butter. It helps you get rid of all the files normally left behind when simply dragging an app to the Trash. The algorithm has improved, and I ran into no cases of it flagging unrelated files when using the Strict setting. When switching to Deep or even Enhanced search sensitivity, things get quite dangerous, as the app routinely includes files unrelated to ...

Enter a brimming fantasy world where your focus is to try and create an amazing team, while also battling enemies that come right in front of you. That’s what Whimsical Heroes does, it offers you the opportunity to create a party of pretty unexpected heroes, and then you battle a plethora of silly, quirky creatures. Just to put things into perspective, you have heroes like a cat, an onion and a radish battling bees, cucumbers and so on. It’s that kind of game, but it also has a heart, and it’s designed from the ground up to be quite involving and engaging as well, which is always nice. From the beginning, the game itself has a nice presentation. Don’t expect AAA visuals or anything, but the game world itself is quite colorful, and it has a nice look to it. Yes, it seems more like a cartoony world where these whimsical creatures are coming to life, and it truly is something creative and enjoyable. Not only that, but the world as a whole feels like something you want...

RENNSPORT is a new addition to the world of simulation racing, and the interesting thing about it is that you can play it free of charge. That being said, the free version is more of a demo, because you have a single track and car that you can use. Still, it gives you an idea of what RENNSPORT delivers, and that’s some pretty good, albeit punishing simulation racing. What I like about RENNSPORT is the fact that the game is focused on pure simulation only, although you can tweak the settings to make it a bit more forgiving. In fact, for casual players, I recommend you add all the assists and go for the easiest difficulty. That will help improve the experience, but you can also go full hardcore simulation where every tiny mistake might cost you the entire race. If you buy the standard edition of the game, you will enjoy using 16 cars from different categories, but also 13 different racetracks. It’s not as much content as some of us would expect, however it gives you ...

I needed to gain access to the Seraphim a little faster. Maybe I should have made sure my two cities put out more research, even if that meant putting a smaller number of Battle Sisters in the field. The flamethrower-wielding jet-powered squads are the best way to deal with incoming Orks and Necrons, especially when backed up by two capable heroes. My delays mean I only have two on the field, close to Celestine herself, while other units are recuperating in the backline. I plan to pull back from the Necron stronghold a little to avoid significant losses. In the meantime, my cities will produce more units, and I will rearrange the battleline to have more options when the revenant machines push forward. Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Rampage Pack is developed by Proxy Studios and published by Slitherine Ltd. This is a downloadable content pack that’s only designed to drop in more units for players to use as they seek to destroy their adversaries. There’s no narrative e...

It’s always hard to know exactly when to let go. This applies to many life moments, but, more importantly, to the core ideas of the rhythm genre. And I keep missing the cue to release the key, which is affecting my ability to get a high score. And I’m playing a song I know pretty well on an intermediate difficulty setting. I’m afraid to try a tougher challenge until I fully master the art of pressing the right key at the exact time to get a “Perfect” evaluation. To avoid any frustration, I return to story mode. A prison conversation about missing breakfast is enough to get me right back into the groove. Main character Beat and her friends are looking to escape. But until they can do that, I need to do some quality assurance, play baseball, and a little pool, and talk to my bandmates to make a plan. The escape involves Beat skating, tracking the song’s rhythm to jump and switch rails at the right time. Then the entire band joins in some musical combat while on a tra...

Whenever you hear the word Mystic, it brings you back to the idea of ancient worlds, and people rooted in those incredible beliefs. However, when we think about Mystic, we are thinking about a very interesting new game, a mix of survival, action and RPG elements, all in a very interesting mix. This new game is set to help bring the fantasy of Arabian nights into our lap, with a beautifully crafted world, lots of enemies, but also jinns and animals. Right off the bat, your focus in this world is to try and stay alive, as pretty much everyone is trying to get you. And you need to use all your skills but also find others that might help you in your quest. It’s not easy honestly, because at first, you are very unskilled, and you aren’t really going to stay alive for much time. That’s why you need to acquire and harness skills as much as possible. Whether you want to learn parkour, improve your combat skills, all of that is quite interesting and it adds new layers of ex...

The angry milk dispenser was too powerful for the previous incarnation of my dog wizard. My build was all about calling in angry trolls and then boosting them via a ring at the end of my turn, so that they could hit hard and, hopefully, take hits. Unfortunately, I had lost too much health to last much against the boss, and my tactic of stunning opponents using curses failed to deliver results. For my current run, the plan is to aim for a powerful wand and strong bones to get shields. The first two battles are relatively easy to win, despite losing one health point to poison, and I manage to get the upgrade that grants an electric shield. If I plan my bone dice three times during a turn, I will not only avoid damage but reflect it doubled to enemies, which makes some encounters trivial. Despite my shiny new abilities, the big tree boss still poses problems. The dog wizard’s abilities don’t grant it control over luck, and the rolls don’t fully go my way.  I launch ar...

A united Iberian peninsula could be a major power, both in Europe and on the world stage. But my version of Spain is currently busy with multiple other priorities, and I have to settle for making Portugal part of our Latin power bloc. Resources are needed to feed the army because its powerful interest group encourages colonialism in Africa. Still, we’re up to fifth in the power rankings, just ahead of both Austria and Prussia. Our solid alliance with the British Empire helps keep threats from other major powers at bay. Our industry is still limited but growing. I avoided rigging the vote, and soon we might actually eliminate the last remnants of Carlist influence. Victoria 3: Iberian Twilight is developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive. The downloadable content pack is classified as focusing on immersion, with gamers able to explore many possible paths for Spain, Portugal, Cuba, Morocco, and more. Both the European powers that s...

Over the past few years, we’ve seen a resurgence of retro-themed beat’em’up games, with titles like TNMT: Shredder’s Revenge being a prime example. MARVEL Cosmic Invasion brings us a similar, retro-themed experience, but this time, we are deep into the Marvel universe, where Annihilus is plotting to take over the entire world with a mischievous plan. It’s up to Marvel heroes to protect everyone and defeat everything that Annihilus is throwing at them, in an effort to be the winners at the end of the day. Even if the game is short and you can finish it in just a few hours, it’s a very compelling experience. The story takes you through a multitude of well-known Marvel worlds, and you also get to battle amazing villains from the comic books, too. I enjoyed the story, I think it’s very rich in details, but at the same time, there are also sections of the story where there’s clear fan service. When it comes to heroes, the roster is impressive. We have 15 Marvel heroes h...

If you ever played board games, then you most likely had the dream of opening your own store and selling games for a living. Now, with Tabletop Game Shop Simulator, you can bring that dream to reality, in videogame form, of course. What’s cool about this game is that you literally start from scratch, and you slowly build towards a thriving, amazing shop where people hang out and even play board games with friends. Like any business, starting off is rough. You don’t have a lot of money, and there’s also a very limited selection of items that you can sell to people. However, you have to start somewhere, and as you upgrade the store’s level, you have access to new unlocks and options for people to spend their money on. First, managing a store is very overwhelming, since you need to tackle every single aspect on your own. And while that’s fine, it does get frustrating, especially as you play more and more. You can sell mystery packs, but you can also open them in order...

Demeo was a very good, turn-based dungeon crawler with a true focus on VR, and many were wondering if there will ever be an expansion or sequel. Thankfully, a new version of Demeo is here, this time with a full-on Dungeons & Dragons skin. If you already played the original Demeo, you will be right at home here, because the gameplay and visual style are very similar. However, there are certain improvements and new elements that I found to be a great addition as well. This new version is also available in VR, but like the original Demeo, it feels very much like a desktop game, albeit with more focus on coop this time around. Content-wise, you have 2 major campaigns. There’s the Embers of Chas which takes place near Neverwinter, in a land filled with volcanoes and rattled by goblins. And then there’s the Crown of Frost, which takes place in Icewind Dale. Here you are focused on surviving the uprising of frost giants. Outside of those, there are 4 one-shot dungeons whi...

Is it a good idea to have more ships on the frontlines or to simply pump up better fleets that can punch above their weight? I pushed heavily for the Terran Alliance to have the best logistical train in the galaxy, making it easy to get numbers to space battles. But I have not yet researched battleships, while the Drengin have quite a few moving around. I’m not at war with them, but relations are deteriorating, and a confrontation is inevitable. For the moment, I am busy taking the final two Xendar strongholds, while building as many ships as possible and trying to get two of my planets to create Galactic wonders. On the diplomatic front, a good alliance might make it easier to deal with the Drengin. Galactic Civilizations IV - Tales of the Terran Alliance is developed and published by Stardock Entertainment. This is a major downloadable content pack for the turn-based science-fiction strategy title, focused on delivering an extensive backstory for the human factio...