ElcomeSoft

[Review] Drox Operative

2012-12-13T12:21:00.005+00:00

Drox Operative Review
Developer: Soldak Entertainment, Inc
Website: http://www.soldak.com/Drox-Operative/Overview.html
Demo: Available for PC and Mac

When Steven Peeler (Designer and Programmer) asked me if I would like to review a starship action RPG called Drox Operative I was quite enthralled with MechWarrior Online and gaming with an amazing friend on Perfect World. I wasn't looking to play a new game for a while and I hadn't reviewed in quite a long time, my mind and body were just not into it.

But I downloaded the Drox Operative demo, fiddled around a bit and thought to myself "Well, I'm enjoying this and I've reached the end of the demo. Let's give it a go." and thus I threw myself into the universe of Drox Operative.

World of Tanks T28 Action: Tier 8 Tank Destroyer

2011-12-01T09:24:00.000+00:00

The T28 might be a slow and ponderous tank and the armour on the front of the beast may not be as impressive as you might assume when you read 254mm, but it is a very capable tank and enjoyable to play when you have reasonable support from your team or the enemy is just shellshocked by your presence.

World of Tanks: Medium Madness with the M26 Pershing!

2011-11-15T15:18:00.002+00:00

This M26 Pershing is quite the dream to drive. Agile and packs a nice cannon to shred through various tanks. Using mobility and it's excellent view range to your advantage, you can get into and out of some sticky situations as well as deal a lot of hurt to the enemy team. Hope you enjoy this outing!

World of Tanks - The King Tiger in Action!

2011-11-07T19:27:00.001+00:00

My very own King Tiger in action. Hopefully the recording quality is good enough, my first real recording with my new machine and I'm no good at editing! More videos to follow if this one gets a lot of thumbs up :)

Review: Space Pirates & Zombies (SPAZ) v1.0

2011-08-15T18:33:00.067+01:00

Developer: MinMax Games

Available via: Impulse, Steam
Game Website: http://www.spacepiratesandzombies.com
Demo: Available here

Considering my preview of SPAZ back in May this year, this review is going to feel somewhat awkward as I feel I will be repeating a lot of what I've already said.

What is SPAZ?

Space Pirates and Zombies is a story driven, 2D top down shooter with additional layers of tactics, research and resource management to add some depth to the whole affair. Multiple enemy types, managing the balance of power within star systems and experimenting with a wide variety of different star ship hulls awaits anyone willing to venture into space.

Löving your Löwe - A Guide to the Lion

2011-06-22T15:18:00.004+01:00

The Panzerkampfwagen VII Löwe (Lion) was a design for a Super Heavy Tank created by Krupp for the Nazi German government during World War II. The project never left the drawing board, and was dropped in late 1942 in favor of the Panzer VIII Maus.

The Löwe was designed in two variants:

Leichter Löwe – crew of five, 1000-hp engine, weight of 76 tons, 100-mm frontal armor, rear-mounted turret, 105 mm L/70 high velocity gun and a coaxial machine gun, top speed 27 km/h.

Schwerer Löwe – crew of five, 1000-hp engine, weight of 90 tons, 120-mm frontal armor, center-mounted turret, 105 mm L/70 high velocity gun and a coaxial machine gun, top speed 23 km/h.

When shown the designs, German Führer Adolf Hitler ordered the Leichter Löwe dropped and the Schwerer Löwe re-designed with a 150-mm main gun, 140-mm frontal armor, and a top speed of 30 km/h.

No prototype of either design was ever built. Some elements of the Schwerer Löwe design were used in the Tiger II, however, and that model proved to be expensive to produce and too large to fit across small bridges.

Source: wikipedia

Russian Test Server 6.5 - The T95 US Tank Destroyer

2011-06-20T18:41:00.002+01:00

The T95 Tier 9 US Tank Destroyer from the Russian Public Test Server running patch 6.5, test 1.

*Please note, that these stats are not final and may be subject to change before final release

Below you will find the tech tree, some vital stats and a couple of short gameplay videos of the T95 in action:
Read more »

Exclusive Interview! PlanetWoT - World of Tanks fanportal

2011-06-09T14:34:00.003+01:00

Today I had the pleasure of speaking to JTS and Juha686, two brothers who play World of Tanks and they have created a World of Tanks fansite with a difference. They have created an IRC bot on the Quakenet IRC server (irc.Quakenet.org) which collects your post-battle information and produces some additional statistics and a highscore list which is ideal for bragging rights with friends...

Welcome to PlanetWoT.

Your Guide to the M26 Pershing - US Tier 9 Medium

2011-06-04T19:17:00.002+01:00

The Heavy Tank M26 Pershing was an American heavy tank used in World War II briefly and in the Korean War. It was named after General John Pershing, who led the American Expeditionary Force in Europe in World War I.

Development of the M26 during World War II was prolonged by a number of factors, the most important being opposition to the tank from Army Ground Forces (AGF). As a result, only the initial 20 M26 (T26E3) tanks deployed to Europe in January 1945 saw combat in World War II.^[1] The M26 and its improved derivative, the M46 Patton, both saw more combat in Korea. The M26 was underpowered and mechanically unreliable and so was withdrawn from Korea in 1951, in favor of the M46, which had a more powerful engine.^[2] The lineage of the M26 continued with the M47 Patton, and was reflected in the new designs of the later M48 Patton and M60 Combat Tank.

Source: wikipedia

The KV Tank: A Guide to...

2011-05-28T20:48:00.002+01:00

The Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tanks were a series of Soviet heavy tanks, named after the Soviet defense commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov. The KV series were known for their extremely heavy armour protection during the early war, especially during the first year of the invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II. Almost completely immune to the 7.5 cm KwK 37 and 3.7 cm KwK 36 guns mounted on the early Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks, until better guns were developed often the only way to defeat a KV was a point-blank shot to the rear. Prior to the invasion, about 500 of the over 22,000 tanks in Soviet service at the time were of the KV-1 type. When the KV-1 appeared, it outclassed the French Char B1,^[1] the only heavy tank used in the world at that time. Yet in the end it turned out that there was little sense in producing the expensive KV tanks, as the T-34 medium tank performed better (or at least equally) in all practical respects. Later in the war, the KV series have become a base of development of the excellent Iosif Stalin tanks.

Source: wikipedia

Space Pirates And Zombies Patch Notes 0.9.005

2011-05-28T09:18:00.000+01:00

MinMax Games have just released a patch for their game, Space Pirates And Zombies (aka. SPAZ), and it was on time. This is a great sign for things to come with this beta game and the list of fixes and changes is quite extensive as you can see below:

World of Tanks v.6.6 Preliminary Patch Notes

2011-05-27T18:14:00.002+01:00

In Development: Vol. 2

Preliminary patch notes of v.6.6 update planned for release after v.6.5:

New map Fishing Bay (working title, subject to change)
New map Siegfried Line (working title, subject to change)
New German heavy tanks line: Pz.VI Tiger (P), VK 4502 (P) Ausf A, Е-75, Е-100.
New US heavy tank М103, a substitution to Т34 as tier 9 US heavy tank.
Soviet heavy tank IS-4 shift to tier 10 and introduction of Object 252 as new tier 9 Soviet heavy tank.
New US premium light tank M22 Locust.
New Soviet premium light tank Т-127.

The introduction of German medium tank Е-50 in v.6.6 update is under consideration.

ETA - July 2011.

Source: Overlord's Blog

World of Tanks v.6.5 Preliminary Patch Notes

2011-05-27T13:16:00.000+01:00

In Development

Currently in development v.6.5 update. Preliminary patch notes:

New map Redshire (working title, subject to change)
New map Mannerheim Line (working title, subject to change)
US tank destroyers line: Т18, Т82, Т40, M10, M36, T25, T28, T95
New tank M46 Patton, a substitution to M26 Pershing as tier 9 US medium tank. Changes to US medium tanks line according to the revised US tech tree
Multiple bug fixes and improvements to v.6.4.

ETA - end of June - July 2011.

Source: Overlord's Blog

Yargh! Space Pirates And Zombies (SPAZ) Preview

2011-05-24T20:55:00.008+01:00

Developer: MinMax Games

Available via: Impulse
Game Website: http://www.spacepiratesandzombies.com
Demo: Available here

UPDATE: Check out my review of SPAZ v1.0 here.

Shiver me timbers me harties! Two of the most popular concepts in movies are pirates and zombies. Pirates of the Carribean combined both of these to great effect so why wouldn't it work in a computer game? MinMax Games combined them with the realm of space and have they found the booty or have they been working on a wild goose chase?

World of Medium Tanks - WoT Guide

2011-05-20T16:00:00.001+01:00

Updated 20/05/2010 (v.0.6.4.0)

Today it is the turn of the mobile masterpiece, the Medium Tank, to have a look at.

World of Light Tanks - WoT Guide

2011-05-20T15:00:00.001+01:00

Updated 20/05/2010 (v.0.6.4.0)

Having played World of Tanks extensively during closed beta testing and now after launch, I thought I would come along and start writing up a few guides, starting off with the bane of artillery, the Light Tank.

Small in-depth guide of the SPG's of World of Tanks.

2011-05-14T13:06:00.001+01:00

SPG Guide by DarkBurrow (EU)

These are just things ive picked up while playing to optimize my own performance.

So, here you are in your artillery starting your first or you 1000th game, but still havent had the urge to find the best way to get reach your optimum performance?

Review: World of Tanks

2011-04-22T14:34:00.001+01:00

World of Tanks

Developer: Wargaming.net

Back in October I brought you an article, Tank You, World of Tanks :), which introduced you all to a new free-to-play MMO which was in Closed Beta Testing at the time. The game was released on April 12th and of course, I have given it a thoroughly good thrashing to bring you a review.

World of Tanks: Epic Match Feeling

2011-04-22T10:09:00.000+01:00

The picture alone doesn't do the match justice... but there are times when you feel like you have had an epic match.

This was one of mine.

Black Prophecy: Revisited

2011-04-06T17:30:00.002+01:00

About 4 months on from my original preview of Black Prophecy I have came back to see how the game is after its release in Europe

When I left Black Prophecy closed beta in January, it had the basis of a great game but felt rather shallow in depth and despite a thoroughly good fun prologue/tutorial, if a little buggy and lengthy, it definitely lacked something to keep a user drawn in. Add on top of this multiple patches, server downtimes and server lag issues, it was quite clear that the beta testers were in for a rough ride early on.

Hands On: Nintendo 3DS

2011-03-24T20:12:00.003+00:00

Well today I managed to get my hands on a Nintendo 3DS at a local GAME store and went several rounds with Street Fighter IV in the store whilst talking to one of the store guys there.

As you know I am not much for consoles or portable gaming systems. I still own a Wii which I don't use and I was never satsified when using the original Nintendo DS.

Relic announce NEW Last Stand Items

2011-03-24T19:13:00.002+00:00

Relic have announced the new Last Stand items which are tied to achievments. what do you think?

In addition to a variety of bug fixes and balance updates the 3.14 patch will include new free Last Stand DLC in the form of 12 new achievements, each of which unlock a new wargear item. Each hero will have 2 new pieces of wargear, but expect some steep challenges to unlock the corresponding wargear! The new wargear will be immediately visible in the Last Stand inventory for all players and each item’s tooltip will describe the achievement you’ll need to unlock and how close you are to unlocking it.

Revenge of the Titans: Technology Research Guide

2011-03-19T19:06:00.009+00:00

It is pretty difficult to tell what certain researches do or lead to within Revenge of the Titans. Certain research topics provide some useful, often vital bonuses to your turrets and mining operations so hopefully this guide will help give you some hints and tips with your research needs.

Also feel free to check out my Revenge of the Titans review.

A full tech tree with symbols. Full credit goes to Melak Denieth from the Steam Forums

It is currently incomplete but I will be working on it as I progress through the game.

Review: Revenge of the Titans

2011-03-19T16:20:00.006+00:00

Revenge of the Titans

Developer: Puppygames

Publisher: Shaven Puppy Ltd

They came out from outer space and without warning, unleashed an unprovoked worldwide assault upon the Earth. We developed defensive towers to defend ourselves from this threat we called The Titans, for no apparent reason! Oh wait, it's because you find out that they're coming from Titan!

Retribution: Collector's Edition Owners Bonus Coming...

2011-03-16T15:34:00.006+00:00

Relic make an announcement over the Collector's Edition and the Wargear DLC's which were available over Steam for a limited time.

"Firstly, thank you to each and every one of you for your support of Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II: Retribution and for making the launch a success.

Unfortunately we did see a lot of feedback from some disgruntled customers who had bought the Collector’s Edition under the assumption that the race packs were exclusive to that particular version of the game. While we had communicated that the race packs were not exclusive to the collector’s edition and would be available for a nominal fee to any Dawn of War fan at launch, it was never our intention to upset people who only bought the collector’s edition for the digital unlocks.

Because we appreciate the feedback you give us as part of our community and because we value your support, we are going to be giving all those customers who ordered the Collector’s Edition a special bonus within the next few weeks. Keep your eyes peeled for further information and in the mean time enjoy the game."

Source: http://community.dawnofwar2.com/blog-post/collectors-edition-owners-bonus-coming