Golden Trails The Guardians Creed Premium Updated V1.1

1:03 PM Posted by H


Incredible treasure lies at the end of an amazing journey in Golden Trails 3! When fortune-hunter Jacques is knocked out on the streets of Paris and then regains consciousness in a tavern, he finds a strange seal on his shoulder. Who put it there? And why? Join Jacques on a daring quest to solve the mystery of the seal. Scour exotic locations, explore ancient writings and solve cunning puzzles as you search for the truth. This PREMIUM EDITION includes a bonus chapter, eight additional hidden object scenes and compelling behind-the-scenes content!

Six chapters to complete
More than 30 locations to explore
Adventure, Unlimited and Puzzle modes
Step-by-step walkthrough
Unlimited hints and tips

 
 


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Endless Space Emperor Special Edition Download for $11.89

9:59 AM Posted by H




XXXX fans could do worse than go for Endless Space Emperor Special Edition [Download]
registers on Steam !







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Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED Headtracker review part 1:Gaming: FPS TPS and of course a Flight sim too..

8:33 AM Posted by H





The Zeiss Cinemizer OLED is a wonderful enigma for me , launching with OLED displays , the finest ergonomics , the coolest battery (temp wise) , true portability and compatibility across consoles and PCs ,weighing less than rivals and with a crystal clear display AND optics .Somehow managing to pull off an equivalent and at times  superior performance to the monster head crab that is the Sony HMZ series with a smaller res...  Everything Sony and others could not do in 2 generations of hmds .. Zeiss did .. as well as promising a headtracking unit that would finally free you of all those light bouncing LEDs and scan rates, resolutions , lag ,drivers ,power and spatial considerations.. And here it is : This is a prototype but looks amazingly close to finished product : 




all the packaging looks final to me:










All hmd fans cry out for headtracking to begin the begin when it comes to Virtual Reality ... no hmd at present or in the future does VR ( and no there is no Oculus Rift any time soon on any horizon ..virtual or real ) .  However Zeiss are set to release their headtracker . the first one built and designed for a consumer hmd ,by the designers of that same hmd. Unlike other head tracking setups that were designed before hmds , the Zeiss solution is tailored specifically for your hmd.




Lets look at the innovations that Zeiss has brought to the headtracker.This is from my first (long) weekend of testing. 

First impressions :

It is what you wanted .. precise , simple to use and emulating the most awesome controller of all time , your mouse which makes it compatible with 1000s of PC games , console games , tablet games and as well as having all the rotational axes a die hard flight sim fan or developer could wish for:



Setup : The Cinemizer OLED Headtracker has the simplest setup of any head tracking device .  

Wii mote sensor bars , Kinect distances and angles with power leads and connectors , PlayStation Move controllers both of which have to be charged and calibrated every time you use them. Over on PC we have expensive IR devices with patented software or Freetrack with instruction on how to attach LEDs to your head (infra red ones I hear) and complicated spacial setups moving furniture around and praying nothing crosses your field of motion control sensing .. 

You know how you set your Zeiss Cinemizer Headtracker up? .. You plug it into a USB port .. on your PC , Mac or console or tablet .. then put it on your hmd or your head without a hmd ...that is it .. it calibrates itself .. it is as easy as plugging in a mouse .. only simpler as there are NO drivers... and I can recall a few mice I have had to chase drivers for in my time..

Never once did I need to go through one of those insane calibration routines that accompany other head trackers , Wii Motion sensors , PlayStation Move or the grand Poobah of motion control ...the Kinect.. 

You really just plug it into the USB port and go .. the instructions say leave it still to calibrate but I never had to ..on any game or desktop test..

Power : You can play using the head tracker as long as your electricity or laptop holds out .. like the Cinemizer OLED hmd itself there is NO power supply . no batteries to recharge.. it just runs like a mouse connected to a USB port ..whether on a PC or console like the PS3 ..  

Gaming Position ...according to ancient vedic teachings of the Gamer Sutra  the core gamer is used to various exotic positions whilst gaming. Unlike other great vedic teachings this process is mostly done solo and mostly clothed as well.. The most popular gaming pose  is the couching tiger position where one sits glued to the couch  with joypad or keyboard and mouse in hand (thanks Big Picture)  ..core gamers ..have been known to maintain this position over 24 hours trying to attain gaming Nirvana... or rescue Princess Peach ..again... some notable examples in internet cafes have even left this realm in the process .. 

The Cinemizer OLED headtracker lets you game in your favourite gaming position. You need not jump around, move 20 feet back from some sensor or glue LEDs to your room or head ... of course you can do that too if you feel nostalgia for the old ways...

Playing with the headtracker on, you are going to move, sitting in your usual catatonic desktop pose  is neither necessary nor required any more, nor is the symbiotic relationship you share with your couch .. Because you are using a motion tracking device you will do best if you sit up and give your self a little more room and if you are sitting down it helps no end to be on a swivel chair. 

It is perfectly possible to game lying back ,slouching etc .. you know who you are .. but for health reasons I would sit up .

You are adjusting adjusting habits here, the headtracker in no way requires you to create more space or move furniture, you can use it in the smallest of spaces or public spaces say a plane or train ..just let everyone know Stevie Wonder is your uncle ... or Ray Charles...  The absolute comfort of the Cinemizer OLED hmd is what allows long term use of the headtracker..it adds little perceivable weight to the hmd (grams) and movement is not hindered by the cable either as you can see below 






Precision : The Cinemizer Head Tracker is the most precise tracking device yet

Most motion control options are usually what is technically referred to as wobbly .. have you ever tried to hold a cursor steady with a Wii mote or Kinect? With the Cinemiser head tracker I can hold an in game sniper rifle dead still move it pixel by pixel , just like you would your precision mouse but no knuckle dragging involved . In Planetside 2 for instance I just looked towards where the sounds of an enemy air vehicle were coming from and there it was within my tank turrets cross hairs .. in Planetside and other FPS games you gain an advantage as turning your head towards the sounds of enemy or sight of them is far more natural and immerses you more in a game world than moving that mouse ..After a few minutes I was getting very proficient at targeting enemy scythes from my tank turret , or sniping using the steadiest aim you could possibly want any more and this would be cheating. As my enemies have to reach down to mice , after scanning with their eyes , all I have to do is look at them and fire that mouse dragging is gone for ever. And the essential prerequisite for this to work is precision.  

When wearing the head tracker you can stop to within a pixel , then hold that pixel with out the cursor shaking.It is like moving a mouse to a position and just leaving it there dead still. I never expected this amount of precision. 

Further more the faster you turn your head the faster the cursor moves , so flicking your head towards an enemy in a game behind you is super fast and effective far more so than that mouse drag... raise and drag ...manoeuvre gamers are used to .. As you use visual cues you are less likely to overshoot with moving your cursor. Take the enemy scythes flying through the Amerish skies in Planetside 2 .. I just moved my head to look up at them. 

Oh and if you are thinking will you move your head when you just could move your eyes ..the answer is you will ..you just do it naturally ..



0 Latency .. This is one head tracker that needs to be slowed down not sped up 

The cabled mouse emulating solution that Zeiss have uses eliminates the bane of hmds that is latency.  You cannot perceive it , in fact the cursor can move so fast you will have to slow the mouse sensitivity down on many a game. Moving your head in a game world , or the the game world  around your character say in Mass Effect 3 is as near 1 to 1 , as fast as your mouse can move. 

Cross platform 

Most , in fact nearly all motion control solutions are platform specific  , yes we can mess with Wii motes and Kinect on PC ..but can you move a cursor to within a pixel and hold it there by moving your head ? With the mouse emulation and USB link cable of the Cinemizer Headtracker there are possibilites of controlling console games that allow mouse and keyboard input... I have just been playing Dust 514 with head tracking on the PS3 .. you can also navigate the PS3 menus with head movements .. I will seek more PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U examples where head tracking works

Cross hmd 

There is nothing to stop you strapping this tiny device to your head whilst wearing other hmds and thus taking benefit of head tracking. There are no drivers to install ! Of course no hmd is as light and ergonomic as the Zeiss ... you would not want to be moving your head around whilst wearing a HMZT1 or 2 for instance . 

Does not even need an hmd 

I think the Zeiss Head Tracker is the missing link in game and PC control. As such you can use it without a hmd altogether and control your PC games and desktop with your head on your standard PC monitor.. Its just that simple ..plug and play .. 


All the above innovations make this a headtracker that we can actually game with so on with the PC and console  game tests .

The videos below are recorded with FRAPS , they show actual play sessions using the the Cinemizer OLED hmd with head tracker attached  for several genres of games..  When the screen moves in these games it is me moving it with the headtracker , when it holds still it is me holding it still with 0 effort using the headtracker. You should be able to get a fair idea of how your gaming will change with the addition of headtracking from the info below:

Planetside 2 played with the Zeiss headtracker 

If any genre tests the precision of a motion control device it is the FPS genre . So why not start off with the finest MMO FPS to date .. Planetside 2 . In my game time I was able to  move the camera around ,snipe with precision and hold my aim steady with little effort ( and little skill I might add as I am constantly finding new ways to play rather than play !) . Planetside 2's vehicles are great to check out the headtrackers abilities , whether on ground or in the air at all times the tracking remains precise. In the following video you will see some of this ,all the screen cursor movement is done using head tracking alone . You literally just look and shoot . No more dragging mice to rotate turrets or turn around . It is so impressive to finally have a motion controller that does not require the hassle of setting up your own motion capture studio or power or drivers or strange config files you have to tweak.  This video shows me testing the precision of the headtracker by tracking moving targets from a moving vehicle. You can of course do all the usual FPS nonsense too . 




Far Cry 3 played with the Zeiss Headtracker 
Playing FPS games with a decent hmd like the Cinemizer OLED is already very impressive , throw in precise head tracking and you are playing with the future of gaming right now ..and there are few games finer to lose yourself in this year than Far Cry 3 : this is how it plays with head tracking, in the following video all screen rotation , aiming , in game camera movements are from me using the headtracker and not from mouse or joypad..



Mass Effect 3 played with the Zeiss Headtracker

 Third person games , where the camera is rotated by mouse really come alive using the head tracker , attached to the Cinemizer OLED you are nearer looking over Shepards shoulder ,looking round his or her world through their eyes, sniping leaning , selecting abilities or messing with menus with ease. This kind of ease of use makes previous motion control solutions look amateur , you know that horrid feeling when you move your wii mote out of the range of the sensor , or someone walks in front of your Kinect or it spends an hour telling you why it does not want to work in your living space.. or even that annoying flashing bulb on the end of the PS Move .. with the Zeiss you get none of that .. You may have played ME3 with voice on the 360 and thought to yourselves wouldnt it be cool if the game had headtracking too? Well it does on PC with the Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED with headtracker attached and here it is in action:



Hawken  .. the makers of Hawken famously promised to support hmds like the Oculus Rift .. but that is unlikely to happen for some time . With the Zeiss headtracker and it's low latency mouse emulation you have a perfect way to get into that Hawken mech turret right now and here is a video showing the results . 



Zeiss Headtracker vs the Onlive Cloud  : one of the concerns re cloud gaming for first timers is controller latency.In practice there isn`t any ,not that you can persuade many die hard recently core PC gamers who were also recently core console gamers... So what better way to test the latency of the Zeiss Headtracker than to set it to controlling some onlve games.When launching games playing with the head tracker , you may get a warning about unsupported controls.. ignore this as the head tracker works just fine .. 

Batman Arkham City played with the Zeiss Headtracker amazing screen rotation , look at a building hit F and leap ..far faster and more impressive than using a mouse or a joypad .. far more immersion as you are literally looking and walking round Arkham City .. Rocksteadys game has great combat but when the screen is filled with bad guys suffers from a little of the old classic Double Dragon syndrome where you end up fighting bady guys and girls off screen ..until you rotate the screen with the mouse or joypad ..wearing the head tracker I just turn my head to bring the bad guys into view ..end of camera rotation problems and improved combat outcomes ..




Aliens Vs Predator (onlive).. testing the precision, target tracking and acquisition capability of the Cinemizer OLED headtracker

Who could resist being a Predator wearing a hmd and head tracker ..or a Marine being left behind to take on all those Aliens ..? You could?  This game is greatly enhanced by head tracking whether you are a solo marine walking dark dank colony corridors with a torch and some flares and a nest of Gigers finest or perhaps just shadows, or a Predator scanning a forest for human trophies.. the precision and mouse emulation of the head tracker makes it perfect for this game.  You actually feel like you are wearing the Predators visor or in those corridors as you no longer use a mouse or joypad to look but actually do look all around you ...don't those pipes look funny? 




Dishonored: this game requires great mouse control and speed of rotation , both of which the Zeiss replaces and enhances .. take a look ...



Deus Ex Human Invasion ( onlive) This game uses both third and first person perspectives , wearing the headtracker actions like leaning around corners and crates (there are always crates) are greatly enhanced ,as is the first person down the barrel view . What impresses is how rock steady the headtracker is , that first person view can have people shaking around their mice , yet I was able to walk around ,hold still and target and move and target with great ease and precision.  If you are a fan of PC FPS games or the leaning round corners genre you will have fun with the Zeiss.

Mechwarrior Online 

Want to move the turret of your mech with your head ...with the Headtracker you finally can beats HAT or POV switches any day...and may earn you more C-Bills in the long run..




Wings of Prey (onlive)

Flight games are the reason people buy hmds and expensive head tracking gear , how does the Zeiss measure up? Well I would say even if you do not have a hmd , if you are even the slightest bit interested in flight sims you should get hold of Zeiss head tracker. In Wings of Prey the mouse moves the pilots head and thus so does the Zeiss , so you can do all the look ing up ,down and around for real and of course check out the cockpit too. Turning your head to view the sky , scenery and enemy planes is so much more natural than using a mouse or second thumbstick on a joypad and flight sim fans will free you of HATs for ever! 




Tom Clancys Hawx 2 (onlive) 
In the complicated world of complicated flight sim controls , I pick this simple action flight sim because this is an example of a game that uses the mouse as a flight control joystick. So when you play moving your head flies the plane (after you invert the controls) so looking up raises the plane looking to the sides in this case roles it .This is where the low latency of the Zeiss starts to shine , set the sensitivity to high and you can move the plane with slight head movements. If you ask me I prefer the old classic mouse controls your point of view scheme but you should be able to see there are several control scheme options.

Iron Sky Invasion (Steam)  : Yes I will get round to Freespace and XWing and Wingcommander ..but for today I tried out Iron Sky Invasion which also has a mouse controls your flight control scheme , thus playing with the head tracker does so as well ,only better as using the head tracker I am able to simply look at where an enemy has shot off screen or a target  like a Zeppelins cannons or engines and my ship flies towards it , missiles lock on quicker and I can hear Twiki saying ...bidibidibidi that's nice shootin Buck....

Realms of The Haunting : as the Zeiss Headtracker emulates mouse movement head tracking works in old DOS games too..in this one raising and lowering your head slightly moves you forwards and backwards , whilst turning left or right does the same for your fov.. 

There are 1000s of games to try all of them that can be enhanced by use 

PlayStation 3 : the cool thing about Sony's console , is the way you can simply plug in any keyboard and mouse... which means we can plug in the Zeiss headtracker

Dust 514 Beta  It has been a while since I got to play this game and wonder of wonders it has keyboard and mouse control . within seconds (ok around 20 minutes of cut scenes and menus later) I found myself playing Dust 514 with head tracking ..no special setup or drivers required . This bodes well for other PS3 games that allow mouse control! And perhaps even some 360 and Wii U ones too..  


From my preliminary tests the most potent thing about the Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED hmd is the Headtracker . This sets the device apart from all other hmds and is a beautifully simple and elegant a solution for PC and console gaming as well as serious VR use . And that`s the thing it is so much better than existing head tracking solutions in terms of price ,ease of use and precision without even one app being developed for it. When those start rolling in ... you will get even more use out of owning this hmd. 

If you want to have head tracking in your game , just like other hmd vendors have promised or avoided altogether you can with the Cinemizer OLED hmd + Zeiss headtracker. 

There is absolutely no need to wait on promised future hmds .. sorry Palmer ..  I do not see the Oculus Rift  surpassing the ease of use of this device.In fact you could use this with the Oculus Rift right now...  And by the time future devices emerge Zeiss will have moved on to it's third gen of hmd. 

I love that the Cinemizer OLED headtracker can be detached , used with other devices , with or without a hmd .. we may even see a few CEOS giving their keynote presentations using it .. who knows? This also means you do not have to replace your entire hmd if your head tracker fails or if Zeiss want to release an updated version.. 

The addition of this tiny device just moves us one step closer to the VR gaming dream so many as yet disappointed hmd fans have waited patiently for.  It works with thousands of existing PC applications , with or without the hmd, you just need to use your head!

 More to follow including 3D gaming tests  with the Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED  headtracker... and some serious uses when I can stop playing games... 

Remember head tracking is not just for flight sim fans ! 



this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 


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Sakis25 Games Store website gets a new look

3:26 AM Posted by H



I have just updated my Store website to a more simple and modern look.
Now there is more space for the games, easier navigation and also new game banners.
I hope you like it.

Check out the Store here: www.Store-Sakis25Games.com


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Dead Island Game of The Year Edition download for $5.99

12:59 PM Posted by H





The other great zombie game this year is available for just $5.99  get  Dead Island Game of the Year Edition now





Check out more up to 80 % off downloads now



this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 


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Asymmetric Multi cloud gaming:Core Online+Splashtop THD=Hitman Blood Money on Google Nexus 7 with 0 install and 0 cost

12:48 PM Posted by H





Over on your iOS or Android tablet (or Windows 8 Surface ) , you are used to playing free versions of games with the small caveat of enduring a few (or legion) adds whilst you play. So it is perfectly normal to have a big release like Angry Birds Star Wars launching with both paid for and free versions. 

Someone over at Square obviously took notice of  these parallel delivery models and asked why we could not do the same for PC games? Well because they are usually around 15 gigs worth of download these days so you can hardly jump in have a quick game and leave... or can you? 

With the magic of cloud based streaming through a browser you can .. and thus was born Core Online which is Square's most impressive cloud based gaming service that lets you play their games totally free , on pretty much any hardware that can run a full Internet browser. The downside.. you watch a brief video of their games to earn play time.. Core Online also looks to have more traditional log in account features that point to the possibility of purchasing games like you do with Onlive. 

In use Core Online is more effective in allowing trouble free gaming than GAIKAI..and has the benefit of being launched from a browser ..without the need to login to an app over Onlive.. you do not need to have an account with them just like GAIKAI ..but unlike GAIKAI you can play a whole game this way... 

But whilst playing a full game free instantly through a browser on a PC that could normally not handle the game is great, why not take the experience to your tablet too?

And thus it was that I found myself in another asymmetric multi cloud gaming test .. using Splashtop THD on the Google Nexus 7 to play Hitman Blood Money totally free , without install and this is how it turned out :




This is how we will play games in the near future , when that happens iTunes and even Steam will go the way of the bricks and mortar stores they replaced.. the technology is here now ...  

Pick up Splashtop THD from Google Play right now , also there is nothing to prevent you doing the same from your iOS device (sans overlay control !):

Check out  Splashtop Remote Desktop for iPad - Splashtop Inc. , in the App Store :



















this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 


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Download Darksiders Bundle for $13.19 (1 + 2 + all DLC including season pass)

6:34 AM Posted by H





THQ is a strange beast , holding some of the most popular and most interesting game franchises but somehow never managing to play its hand and win at the big tables .. where other publishers manage to pull off higher sales with lesser hands..Guess they need a better Poker face or more aces like Darksiders Franchise Pack [Download] up their sleeves.. An ace game series that you can get for the paltry sum of $13.19 now .. for a limited time registers on Steam of course!


 



this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 


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OneGameAMonth.com

6:23 AM Posted by H

I will be participating in onegameamonth.com for all of 2013! It is a year-long event to encourage rapid and consistent creation of games basically with no rules. Currently my games consist of two-month development cycles followed downtime to test new ideas and technologies. I'd like to change all that and force myself to succeed in one game a month, potentially licensed out in Flash format, or put up in the app store.


The previous game jam taught me how to properly use placeholder art while adding and revising features at a rapid pace. Otherwise with no time pressure, I tend to conservatively revert to my traditional methods when it comes to design. Hmmm, probably this is why already I have a sequel for some of my most successful Flash games? I may resort to previous Ludum Dare themes for each month; somehow being limited by a particular theme makes me more creative.

On a related note, I am absolutely overwhelmed by the number of indie game developers that I have discovered in the midst of the recent Ludum Dare, and now this OneGameAMonth year-long event. I must have added at least a hundred developers to my Twitter, and about a dozen blogs to my Google Reader. I am so thankful to be part of this community.

Here is a clip from a documentary recently made on indie game developers. I got to watch an early showing in Asheville, North Carolina earlier this year. The DVD is available so go buy it!


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Tsolias vs Zombies 3D v1.3 with full support for iPad and iPhone 5 now available!

5:15 AM Posted by H







New version (v1.3) of the game Tsolias vs Zombies 3D with full support for iPad and iPhone 5 is now available!

What's New in Version 1.3
iPad Support!
New HD Graphics
Optimized for iPad and iPhone 5
Updated graphics in every level
Other fixes and improvements




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Goat Mechanic

9:45 PM Posted by H

At the last minute I decided to participate in Ludum Dare 25 (Twitter #LD48 for 48 hour entries). If you are unfamiliar, it is a world-wide game jam - a contiguous chunk of time allocated to developers to create a game given a particular theme. In this case, it was "You are the Villain" and sub-themed with "Goat". Errhh.. probably my least favorite pick from the voting pool.


That's right.. 48 hours.. two days from start to finish. This was my second game jam and just as exhausting as my first experience. It's like if you allocate eight hours to sleep, and five hours for eating and relaxing, you are down to 35 actual hours for development. Let's see.. 35 hours.. In other words, it's equivalent to a full 40 hour work week with one hour lunch breaks on each day, all condensed down into a weekend.

..Ouch is right.

Currently over a thousand entries were submitted, so here is the strange contraption I managed to come up with called Goat Mechanic:




When presented with the theme of "You are the Villain". The kid from the movie The Good Son popped in my head. As we know, that character is almost as villainous as it gets. There was a scene of him throwing something off a bridge into traffic, so that's pretty much the idea I went with. The twist is you work for a mechanic who earns money by accidents that you cause on the roadways.

Friday was spent on the art and getting cars to move around. I resorted to Box2D and it worked out really well. I tried all this complicated math to get the cars to swerve around, but after several iterations the best solution turned out to be the easiest.. Every frame just readjust velocity to be about 90% of the car's facing direction to restrict sideways motion, and get cars to swerve by adjusting angular velocity.

On Saturday I worked on the results and shop clipboards. At this point everything was coming together, so I spent time finishing the art and functionality of the shop items. Oil spills cause cars to lose traction, beach balls bounce around, anvils are very heavy so they stop cars instantly. Basically everything can cause an accident.

On Sunday I realized there was a goat sub-theme, so I shoehorned it in with some narrative, along with an ending and preloader screen. It was submitted with a couple hours on the clock remaining.

Overall, a grand experience and I definitely forward to the next game jam!


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Iron Sky Invasion Space Combat Opera German/Finnish Style..

11:17 PM Posted by H





Most sci fi, in fact all sci fi can be considered a parody of itself from Fritz lang to Kubrik and  Lucas and beyond more time has been spent laughing at than taking seriously all the scifi movie greats, I mean that monkey (yes I know) throwing that bone that becomes a space ship after looking at a black obelisk and proceeding to mash the skulls of its fellow monkey kindred with said bone...absolutely hilarious ... or the one where a young Sonny Crockett feeds his girl friend to his telepathic dog... there is divine humour at the heart of all sci fi and usually unintentional .. the same goes for the Space Opera games genre which is usually ripping ..erhh riffing from  the literary and film scifi "greats" ..Can you play Wing Commander with a straight  face?




Alongside the oh so serious sci fi that inevitably ends up being mocked or worshipped on some US sitcom decades after franchise cheques stop coming in for it's moth balled cast there is a very seriously intentionally funny genre of sci fi parodies ..one that intentionally exists to be funny and self depreciating. From the  sublime Ice Pirates, to anything by Mel Brooks ..ok Space Balls to the recent Finnish masterpiece of insane scifi parody and satire that is Iron Sky. 



Iron Sky succeeds in not only parodying the greatest evil mankind has faced but also the state of the worlds great powers back stabbing each other for the honour of fighting over the next greatest finite resource.. You won`t just laugh at the bad guys and the idea of Moon Nazis but also at the good guys too.. 




Should it work ? No ..but it does and somehow Topware have infused all the humour and irreverence of the the film into the game which takes up where the film left off.  And then some  .. 




What you are also getting alongside the humour, is a new take on the space combat or opera genre. 

Let us look at the innovations Iron Sky Invasion brings :

First : Mission structure

Age old Space Combat and Opera Doctrine dictates that missions fold out in a progressive and linear fashion ,each one distinct from the last , never overlapping , so from Wing Commander to Xwing to Freespace veteran space jocks knew they look at a mission briefing screen , watch a cut scene, click on launch, fly a mission that is entirely enclosed in its own time frame , take your time and then click on another menu screen at the end of the mission , watch a cut scene and then repeat . Whilst some games ok Wing Commander gave you mcqs to lead to different branches of story line and combat .. it never actually felt like your decisions flowed ..

In Iron Sky Invasion, the whole game is one big mission in which all the other mission and side quests unfold in real time whilst you are completing other missions , none of which takes you out of the action ever .. no more 2D briefing screens or craft selection.. Now things start off simple where you fly off to one or two locations , then as the game progresses waves of the enemy turn up and you have to decide and manage your resources flitting from space station to space station, choosing which countries space fleet to help blast Moon Nazis out of their space fairing war machine  to halt the blitzkrieg. And  then you start to see missions overlapping , and the front line moves closer and closer to Earth so you feel like you are defending against an enemy whose movements are occurring in real time . At any time even in mid battle you can leave one fight and go and tackle another , change ships , armaments and generally panic if it all gets too much.. 


Second: Navigation : In traditional space combat games you have to come out of the action to a separate map screen to navigate , or worse still you have to scoot around the black screen peppered with stars trying to highlight one pixel which is supposed to be your next destination , or even worse still you have to manoeuvre your space ship through the glowing concentric rings of a star gate ..which has its own Kubrik fixated accompanying sound track (Ego Soft I mean U) and even worse still to get to said jump gate you have to engage a separate engine or drive ...  

In Iron Sky Invasion ..navigation is bliss , to go anywhere of import simply bring up the transparent map , click on the red blob to fight enemies , click on blue blobs to fly to friendly bases and you are transported to the action. No hour long jump gate journeys or fancy warp nonsense or switching to and from impulse power... and this is vital as you will use the fast navigation system to resupply and change ships mid battle or to switch to other ongoing and newly emerging battles on the fly... 

Third :Energy Management.
Every one remembers that gods awful energy bar management system from X Wing , the one that had you taking your eye off the action too often and was nothing like Chewie pulling back on those controls on the Millennium Falcon..  energy management is one of the reasons the X Wing series tanked ...that and 20 or so missions of scanning crates.. 

In Iron Sky .. energy management does not require you ever looking away from the screen to find which of the 101 keys are mapped to it . No you use , simple to learn taps of W , E  to switch energy from shields , to weapons to engines and each has a real impact on real time space combat.  What this creates is almost a rock paper scissors aspect to some of the combat and you immediately start to develop strategies to take down different enemies.  Best of all the centre screen HUD shows you all the changes happening right where your focus is on the action, so I am tackling a particularly tough bad guy , I shift power to the weapons by double tapping W immediately I see the weapon bar power up and without taking my eye off the enemy i vaporise him ... no looking down at keyboards for page up or down keys or F12 keys or hunting the energy bars on a cockpit view a la X Wing... Sorry Larry Holland! 

Fourth : In Iron Sky , your allies actually do stuff ... in many PC games you have allies running around or flying around often having no impact at all , but in Iron Sky the AI ships are actually taking part in your war, you even get a nice announcement that the George Dubbya Bush is engaging in a battle , or the MIR fleet is entering a fight ..and at this point all the above comes together with you exploiting the open mission structure , choosing which of the two you want to fly to within seconds with ease using the innovative navigation system , using the the energy system to exploit weaknesses in the enemy and fighting alongside your allies . 



Fifth : Humour   hilarious in battle comment , narrative or further mission requests from World leaders or your evil foe ,makes for  a very unique intentional space combat satire...  , some of the mission requests alone will have you reeling about on the floor with laughter. Humour is not only present in the game but also a pre requisite of the Iron Sky Invasion gamer..if you need to look up what satire means you will be lost here..



Sixth : 3D .. Iron Sky Invasion supports many 3D formats from the get go, no need for fancy gpus either , I played in 3D using just an Intel HD 3000 using the smd ST1080 hmd .. And the 3D really does enhance the game. I need to try it with Tridef to see if i get a better frame rate than using the in game 3D option but I will save that for later:



I started off sceptical, read a few reviews( mostly from sites who missed the satire and don't have a Heart of the Tiger between them) , played the demo  to test the game in 3D with the ST1080 as you can see above and check out the speed on my laptop as you can see below.




 The mission to save Bollywood alone sold me on the game, but it is likely for you the game proper will only really take off when you attack your first Zeppelin like so ...but you won`t see that in the demo , so here is footage from the retail game I purchased thanks to Mr Sharma.... Like all air or space combat games you can play with skill or just scoot through .. there are old pilots and there are bold pilots as the saying goes...



The Zeppelin battle reminds me of that old PC Zipper interactive classic Crimson Skies and if you hanker for some Zeppelin take down action you won`t be playing a sequel to that game any time soon. But thanks to Iron Sky Invasion .. you can and in space and against everyone's favourite gaming bad guys ( no not zombies) ...

You also get to see some of the sfx the engine has going , with self shadowing , spinning and rotating ship sections ,lens flares ..all the staple decolage that comes with the finest Space Combat games ... 


So this is for you Space Combat fans, yes it is great to support Roberts Space Industries Star Citizen ,currently 3 to 5 years way ( that is Roberts time)  , it is great to go back to old classics like Freespace and even X Wing ... you may even find humour with Bruce Campbell in Tachyon .. but none of them is this game .. Iron Sky Invasion is a gift for space combat fans and quite the only game in which you can be taking out Moon Nazi Space Zeppelins one moment and in another rescuing a kidnapped Bollywood director at that behest of the Indian PM Mr Sharma .. or being laughed at by a Palin clone Madam President .. every nation is ridiculed to perfection in this game .. I mean the Ausie ship is named after Mick Crocodile Dundee! 

All In all I am having great time with Iron Sky Invasion, if you want to lose your life go play EVE or go catatonic thanks to the pace of Egosofts X series .. this is pure unadulterated silliness that is going to confuse a lot of people who miss the point that it is intended to be satirical towards all mankind evil and good as well as managing to move the stale space combat genre past the mission screen ,cut scene , mission , mission summary screen , cut scene... 101 key + joystick control and 3K costing rig demands of it`s forebears. 

It even manages to get mouse control right, without turning the experience into point and click  farce a la Freelancer!

Will your hardware run it ?  I played at up to 1080p with an Intel HD3000 GPU and a Lenovo X220T . At 720p it flies (which figures as this is a staple console resolution), using the in game 3D hits the frame rate ,but when you are playing wearing a ghost free 100 inch 3D display powered by a USB cable ..who cares? The videos here should be able to see the difference in 720p , 1080p and 3D game play . On dedicated GPU hardware this will push over 100 FPS . Which reminds me I must fix my rig this week..





Buy Iron Sky Invasion in the UK now and eventually   IRON SKY INVASION IN THE USA  . Try out the demo on Steam now ..







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