Ubisoft has announced today the launch of patch 0.11.1 for its free-to-play first-person shooter on the PC, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Online. It was only a month ago when players received the last big update.

Boasting general service fixes and improvements, the latest update offers Military Surplus Boxes, the latest form of Mystery box and gives players a chance to get a permanent item of equal or greater value to the price of the box.

Also included is the new Battle Salvage loot box system, dropping more often and also available to buy in-store. Patch 0.11.1 adds a new series of bundles for each class, like Starter bundles for new players and Standard bundles for those between level 5-17. Ubisoft is hoping the low price should give players a variety of weapons and gear that is instantly accessible.

You can sign up over here to play now for free.

Hacker Evolution
Developer: exosyphen studios
Publisher: exosyphen studios
Platform: Windows PC
Release Date: May 7th, 2007
Price: $9.95 – Available Here

Overview

Hacker Evolution is the game that spawned a series of three hacking sims by Romanian indie developers exosyphen studios. Since then, exosyphen has provided a steady stream of updates to the title.

Story

Brian Spencer is our hacking hero. He is a master hacker and a former intelligence agent. After a failed mission resulted in the death of his family, he retired to his own island in the Pacific Ocean and became a security consultant. The story starts in December 22, 2015 after a chain of mysterious hacks cripple the New York Stock Exchange, the Xenti Corporation, and several other companies. Spencer is hired to find the culprit by John Davis of the Federal Securities Agency.

Hacker Evolution’s plot is told by short emails received during gameplay and several paragraphs in between levels. Since the base game is only nine levels long, the plot has about the same amount of content as a TV episode. However, without spoiling too much, it is pretty standard sci-fi fare with a nice light splash of intrigue thrown in for good measure.

Gameplay

Hacker Evolution is actually a strategic puzzle game more than an actual hacking sim. Playing the game probably won’t teach the player much about real hacking, but the game is mostly controlled by inputting commands into the console. Like an actual console, many commands can be completed with a quick tap of the tab key, allowing slower typists to having a fighting chance. Aggressive actions against other servers like stealing money or attempting to crack their passwords will trigger a trace. If the trace is successful, the player automatically is hit with a 50% penalty to their total trace amount. If the player completes the action, they will gain a smaller penalty to their trace amount. If the trace reaches 100%, it is game over. The trace amount can be lowered by spending $500 in a killtrace command. However, there is an extremely limited amount of money available in the game.  Players can slow down traces by hiding behind other hacked servers, but each server can only be used for three aggressive actions before becoming useless. Players will need to strategically plan their actions and carefully balance their spending between better equipment and killtraces to hide their tracks.

The puzzling elements come in the hints that are scattered across the game. Players will need to have a keen eye to spot server addresses and solve clues to figure out passwords. exosyphen studios does a masterful job of subtly slipping in these clues while maintaining the feel of being a hacker poking around in someone else’s files. There are several side servers or alternate methods of handling certain servers for the observant.

I found the game to be fiendishly difficult by default. Making a newbie error like buying an unneeded upgrade early in the game can cause the game to become practically impossible to complete in later levels, requiring the player to start the whole game from the beginning. I would have liked to see a level select option that would allow players to pick up from previously played levels with some basic upgrades and a small amount of money. I am not ashamed to admit, I found myself enjoying the difficulty of the game more after giving myself an extra 10,000 dollars in the early levels while I figured out the mechanics of the game and alleviate some of the do or die pressure of the game’s default difficulty.

Hacker Evolution comes with a full set of mod tools that allows players to create their own missions. exosyphen studios released an expansion campaign for Hacker Evolution through these mod tools. Many user mods can be downloaded at the exosyphen webpage. Buyers who purchased their game from Steam or Desura, instead of purchasing the game through the official site, will unfortunately need to go through the hassle of sending in a screenshot of their purchase so they can get access to the database of mods.

Visuals

Hacker Evolution comes with a variety of skins to provide a little visual variety. At its core, players will stare at the same screen for the whole duration of the game. The UI is well organized. The mono colour palette has a retro meets high tech feel to it.

Hacker Evolution does not have a windowed mode at this point. When the game was developed, 1080 monitors were a rarity. The game is currently maxes out at 1440×950 resolution, but exosyphen has confirmed on the Steam forums that they are working to update the game to support modern resolutions and windowed modes.

Audio

Hacker Evolution comes with a nine track electronica soundtrack by DJ Velocity. The soundtrack plays on loop similar to an MP3 player, allowing players to skip tracks they may not like. Unfortunately, this means the game doesn’t adjust the music to the pace of the game. Instead, the music keeps an intense feel to it at all times which can be a little tiring after long sessions. The sound effects contain a library full of computerized beeps and blips that fit well with the high tech meets retro theme of the game. Certain error messages are announced out loud by a female voice. The strong audio experience for Hacker Evolution is fits the game’s theme perfectly.

Overall

Hacker Evolution is an excellent puzzle game hobbled by its difficulty level. The learning curve is rather steep. However, Hacker Evolution has some great puzzles worked into the hacking theme. The visuals and audio help build a great high tech meets retro feel to the game that fits the game perfectly. For those willing to look past Hacker Evolution’s age and difficulty will be rewarded with a solid puzzle game.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

SimCity’s 4.0 update launching today will introduce new areas, re-enable features and add additional fixes, according to a post on the EA forums.

After the update some features will be re-enabled, such as global market prices will now dynamically change during gameplay, and region filters and leaderboards are once again active. Region filters will now also be enabled on SimCity servers so you will be able to search for open games by Map Name, Sandbox Mode and Abandoned Cities. SimCity will also show the player’s current server in the options menu and include more detailed roll over information about whether Sim’s received happiness from a park or shopping.

The update also includes two new areas to explore. Edgewater Bay is a region with seven city sites in a single cluster with one great work site, and SimCity Launch Park is a special area dedicated to fans that will be available exclusively to early adopters. Update 4.0 also includes a few graphical, messaging and weather updates.

In terms of fixes, Maxis have fixed an issue where some cities would not have rain clouds to replenish their water table. In addition to this fire truck response times have been improved, as has the time it takes for a fire signal to reach a fire station. Happiness has also been tuned so that Sim’s will lose a small amount of happiness if they don’t have a place to shop, therefore meaning that cities without places to shop will see complaints.

You can read the full post for more details. However, there doesn’t appear to be an update which extends the city size or add an offline mode. A review of SimCity from Capsule Computers can also be found here.

Tetris Blitz
Developer: EA
Publisher: EA
Platforms:  iPhone (Reviewed), iPad, iPod Touch, Android, Google Play
Release Date: May 17 2012
Price: Free – Available Here

Overview

Tetris has been around for what seems like forever and from day one it really hasn’t changed, yeah, there’s been a tonne of variations, additions, remakes and what not but they’re all still Tetris. Tetris Blitz is no different. It’s still Tetris, it’s still colourful, it’s still just a bunch of shapes and it still rocks like nothing else. What else is there to say? “Let’s Play Tetris!”

Gameplay

This is essentially the same old Tetris but, let’s say, crazier and faster. It’s the same Tetris layout that has been changed to make you think quicker, act quicker and play quicker. It’s great! We all know how to play normal Tetris don’t we? I hope so because it plays mostly the same. you start off with an already quarter build screen, as if you come into the game partway through, you get given pieces (like normal) but instead of shifting and moving them yourself a couple silhouettes pop up down the bottom indicating where you can place the the pieces, there IS a button to shift which way the piece is placed but it really goes unneeded because you’re too busy with your swift thinking and acting. There’s also a time limit, you’ve got two minutes to get as high a score as you can.

They have also added power-ups to the games to pump us the flair. Power-ups like Avalanche which let’s loose a whole lot of blocks that fill in any hole they can and clear lines when possible. New power-ups are released every week so the game stays fairly fresh. The whole point of this iteration of Tetris is not to make you sit, think and take your time. Not at all.  If anything it teaches you quick thinking and impulsive actions that can either make or break your game. These game works so well because of its time limit; being able to start and finish a game in only two minutes is something that makes this game so damn accessible, you can essentially play it whenever and wherever. I found myself playing this game a lot more than I should have strictly because of the way it was played and how quick and easy it was to pick up and play. It’s not the traditional Tetris but it really does fit in with the modern, fast-paced world.

Visuals

This game has a great look. It’s colourful, it’s new-age yet also retro, it feels like Tetris yet also feels like a fresh take. It’s just awesome. Everything still looks, essentially, like Tetris so they haven’t gone to far away from the original. With the retina display this game looks fantastic. It’s crisp and fluid and looks everything but dodgy. The colours are so vibrant and they pop. It’s animated so well; the way the lines explode when you clear one and the way the upgrades and power-ups are animated really makes it feel worth it. Colourful explosions are always a winner in my books!

Audio

Original Tetris theme remixed. Do I really need to say anymore? It definitely feels like Tetris has been thrown into the new age with the remixed theme song, it also has nostalgic value with it being the ORIGINAL theme. It just works so damn well! The sound effects rule! Not once during this game did I ever feel I needed to put it on mute, not once. The sounds, much like the visuals, made clearing lines feel really rewarding.

Overall

Let’s just say that after you play this game there really isn’t a good chance you’ll think “Ugh! Classic Tetris is so much better!”, with this game in your hands you really wont need to. Apart from the slew of adds and in-app purchases this game was pretty much perfect! You don’t have to purchase anything you don’t want to so it’s not a big deal. I was playing it during times where, to be honest, I really shouldn’t have been playing it because of how addicting it is. Look this game rocks and I suggest it to everyone. There’s no one I know that hates Tetris and I can say the same about Tetris Blitz!

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

*Reference

After a short hiatus, the Humble Weekly Sale is back with a bang, this time featuring Alan Wake Collector’s Edition, Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, and a large variety of special bonus content. Alan Wake fans are still reeling from the stinging announcement that Remedy’s new project is not Alan Wake 2. As part of the Humble Weekly Sale, Remedy’s Creative Director Sam Lake posted a video discussing the state of affairs of Alan Wake and a little bit about Remedy’s new game Quantum Break.

Part of the proceeds from the Humble Weekly Sale goes to support the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Child’s Play Charity. The Humble Weekly Sale featuring Alan Wake is available at Humble Bundle‘s site.

indiePub Entertainment knocked down the prices of three of their games for a limited time. Recently released Bad Bots is 25% off on Steam until May 24th. After the sale ends, Storm will be on sale for 80% off at the official site until May 28th. Both games are available for Windows PC and Bad Bots is also compatible with Macs. PlayStation 3 owners are not left out in the cold as Auditorium HD will be on sale at 50% off until June 4th.

Bad Bots is indiePub’s newest release. The game is a retro styled platformer that arms players with a variety of weapons as they fight through a horde of robots. Be sure to read our review of Bad Bots.

Storm is a relaxing puzzle game that allows players to shape a world by controlling the weather. There are 49 levels to complete and three game modes to play.

Auditorium HD is game where players manipulate light and sound to solve puzzles. The game is compatible with the PlayStation Move.

Wargaming.net, developer and publisher of the free-to-play MMOs World of Tanks, World of Warplanes and the upcoming World of Warships has announced today that it will be financially supporting three major open-source development foundations.

These include the Linux Software Foundation, the Django Software Foundation and the Wikimedia Foundation. Wargaming has a key interest in making sure they succeed, as they utilise and heavily rely on open-source tech to power their online titles.

Maksim Melnikau, Solution Architect at Wargaming says, “As a company, we’d like to say thank you to all the developers, testers and users who’ve helped create these awesome tools and that we’re extremely honored to hopefully help them continue their great work moving into the future.”

Wargaming was founded in 1998 as a privately-held company and has since shipped over 15 titles while employing 1600 people across the world in places like North America, Europe, Russia, Asia and Australia. Games like World of Tanks, boasting over 45,000,000 players, has seen it grow into a giant on the MMO playing field.

Fallen Enchantress’s standalone expansion pack Legendary Heroes was released today. The game is a fantasy 4X strategy game with RPG elements. Legendary Heroes addresses some gameplay concerns in the Fallen Enchantress including the champions system. Players can now earn champions rather than finding them randomly scattered across the map. The game’s units and item systems have also been rebalanced.

“While it was tempting to create a traditional expansion pack that focused on new, we wanted to use this opportunity to take Fallen Enchantress, a good game, and make it into a great game,” said Brad Wardell, President & CEO of Stardock.

Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes is available on Steam for for $39.99 USD. Owners of the original game will receive a 50% discount on Legendary Heroes.

The macabre seems to be the zeitgeist of this generation. First, it was vampires, but now zombies rule popular culture.

And with the success of recent movies such as Warm Bodies, and the buzz behind future releases like World War Z from Paramount Pictures, Boost Mobile Australia recognises the mega-trend’s staying power and continued popularity. This is why they are soon to launch a new campaign called ‘Stay Living’.

‘Stay Living’ will feature a series of three short films that tap into this global phenomenon with action-packed scenes that depict the lives of four young Australian heroes in a zombie apocalypse. Battling their way through the zombie infested streets of urban Australia, the characters use their razor sharp survival skills to stick together, look out for each other, and above all else, ‘Stay Living’.

What may seem like your regular zombie genre entries on the surface will hold a more meaningful message, specifically targeted at the more clued-in Gen-Y audience. The short films will be available on June 4th online, via social media channels, on TV and in-store.

For a sneak-peek, visit Boost Mobile Australia’s official YouTube channel.

Ayopa Games have announced that their titles will become available for completely free, this coming Memorial Day Weekend as part of their massive free promotion for several of their most popular paid titles.

The following games have been confirmed as part of the deal and thus will be available for free this weekend:

iPhone/iPad/iPod touch

• Chicken Rescue – normally $0.99 (App Store link)
• Death Golf  – normally $0.99 (App Store link)
• Dungeon Crawlers – normally $0.99 (App Store link)
• Light Byte – normally $0.99 (App Store link)
• M.U.S.E. – normally $2.99 (App Store link)
• Pocket Heroes – normally $0.99 (App Store link)
• W.E.L.D.E.R. – normally $2.99 (App Store link)

Mac

• Dungeon Crawlers – normally $4.99 (Mac App Store link)
• W.E.L.D.E.R. – normally $4.99 (Mac App Store link)

Android

• M.U.S.E. – normally $1.99 (Google Play link)
• W.E.L.D.E.R. – normally $2.99 (Google Play link)

Kindle Fire HD

• W.E.L.D.E.R. – normally $2.99 (Amazon Appstore link)

This is undoubtedly an incredible promotion from the industries leading publisher of independently developed mobile games. Please note that these titles will be available for free starting midnight on Friday, May 24 and ending midnight on Wednesday, May 29. So be sure to get in quick to take advantage of this amazing offer from Ayopa Games.