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Though it wasn't the first game of its type, Command &
Conquer became synonymous with real-time strategy gaming when the very
first game in the series was released in 1995. Along with Blizzard's
Warcraft II, Command & Conquer helped build the foundation for one
of PC gaming's most beloved genres, defining many of the real-time
strategy conventions that are used today. And though Command &
Conquer has seen its highs and lows over the years, the series' quirky,
politically incorrect, comic-book-like take on modern warfare has
remained intact all throughout, and it is upheld in the latest entry in
the series, Command & Conquer: Generals. More importantly, Generals
is easily one of the best Command & Conquer games yet, with the
impressive visuals and highly refined and accessible gameplay that have
come to characterize the best entries in this genre. Die-hard fans of
Command & Conquer may lament a few of the departures Generals makes
from the series' roots, and the game does have a few rough edges, but
Generals is still one of the best real-time strategy games around.
The USA owns the sky with its gunships, fighters, and stealth bombers.
Generals' fictional premise puts the USA, China, and a terrorist group
called the Global Liberation Army (GLA) at odds sometime in the near
future. You can play as any one of these factions in its own brief
single-player campaign, in skirmishes with computer opponents, or
against other players over a LAN or using the game's online
player-matching service. Those who played the previous two Command &
Conquer RTS games, Red Alert 2 and its expansion pack, Yuri's Revenge,
will note that Generals is highly reminiscent of those games, despite
its much improved appearance and its seemingly more conventional array
of infantry, tanks, and aircraft. Like in Red Alert 2, battles in
Generals are often quick and decisive, largely due to the immense power
of many of the game's units, the presence of devastating super weapons
on each side, and the generally fast pace. Also, while each faction has a
good variety of units at its disposal, you'll likely get the impression
that the number of unit types per faction was limited so that each unit
type could play an important role in most any fight--and also to leave
room for an expansion pack. The lack of seafaring units in the game is a
disappointing omission, given the importance of ships in most previous
Command & Conquer games (not to mention in actual modern warfare),
but the designers have still done an excellent job of imaginatively
differentiating the game's three sides.
Despite the
fact that the game's central conflict involves the USA and an obviously
Middle Eastern terrorist group, the action in Generals is either
over-the-top enough or abstract enough that, for better or worse, it
shouldn't offend anyone's sensibilities. In fact, as if to drive home
the sense that "Hey, it's just a game," there's really no story at all
to Generals. The motivations of the respective factions aren't made
clear, and their arsenals are far enough removed from reality that
Generals seems much less inspired by current events and much more so by
the current fascination with war in our popular culture. Movies like The Rock and Black Hawk Down
certainly played a bigger part in inspiring the game's look and style
than anything on the nightly news. It bears mentioning that almost all
the mainstays of the Command & Conquer milieu can nevertheless be
found in Generals--fans will be glad to see huge, double-barreled tanks,
crack-shot commandos, nuclear missile silos, flamethrower tanks, and
other such C&C mainstays back and looking better than ever. Many of
the twists added to Red Alert 2 remain intact as well, such as the
ability to garrison infantry in civilian buildings and the ability of
units to gain experience levels by defeating foes.
Even a small squad of Chinese forces can be dangerous. In large groups, they're deadly.
Other aspects of this new Command & Conquer are decidedly
different. C&C fans may not notice right away, but Generals lacks a
few of the series' signature elements. For instance, Command &
Conquer games always did a nice job with their installation programs,
many of which put you in the mood of the games even before you could
begin playing. But Generals has a boring install program, just like
every other game. Also, previous Command & Conquer games made
prodigious use of full-motion video cutscenes to move their stories
along. Featuring recognizable actors, hammy performances, and
surprisingly good production values, the full-motion video sequences of
Command & Conquer have always been a distinguishing feature of the
series--but the FMV is out of the picture now, too. These complaints
hardly bear mentioning, but considering Generals' heritage, they're not
irrelevant.
What the GLA lacks in technology it makes up for with sheer tenacity. Its buildings are the hardest to destroy.
Not
all the game's departures are cosmetic. Debates used to rage on the
Internet as to whether Command & Conquer or Warcraft II had the
better interface, and as if to settle the score once and for all,
Generals retreats away from some of the C&C standards in favor of
the Blizzard school of thought. The signature right-hand interface from
previous C&C games is replaced by the signature Blizzard-style
interface situated at the bottom of the screen. The signature C&C
fog of war, which provides you with unlimited line of sight as soon as
you explore the map, has been replaced by the signature Blizzard fog of
war, which limits your ability to see enemy positions outside of your
forces' field of view. The signature C&C base building, which allows
you to erect new structures almost instantly but forces you to place
them adjacent to your other structures, has been replaced by the
signature Blizzard base building, which allows your worker unit to build
new structures pretty much anywhere. These are all sensible decisions
that make Command & Conquer: Generals more strategic and ultimately
more entertaining, but it's still odd to see the series have a change of
heart after all this time. One aspect of Command & Conquer's
traditional control scheme that does remain intact is that mouse
controls revolve entirely around the left mouse button, which is used
both to select units and to issue attack orders. The right mouse button
is only for de-selecting things, and those accustomed to recent games
that use the right mouse button for move and attack orders may find that
this scheme takes a bit of getting used to.
The
gameplay itself is what you'd expect from a Command & Conquer
game--it's fast, responsive, and filled with lots of great explosions.
There's no dillydallying about, just a quick-and-dirty setup process
where you slap down a few key structures and then move on to cranking
out a good, mixed group of forces. Numerous, unique upgrades are also
available to each faction, competing for your resources. Resource
gathering, while slightly different for each faction, is fully automated
like in Red Alert 2. The US helicopters, Chinese supply trucks, and GLA
workers will all make a beeline for the closest batch of "supply,"
which is basically a big stockpile of valuables just sitting there and
waiting to be collected. As in all Command & Conquer games, a viable
strategy in Generals is to attack the enemy's all-important gatherers,
though the buildings in the game can't withstand much damage, either.
You can't build walls, base defenses are pretty flimsy, and a lot of the
buildings are quite large and vulnerable--so the game definitely favors
an aggressive style of play. Overly defensive play will merely land you
front-row seats to the fiery destruction of your own base.
You can see visible damage on units. This Raptor won't make it, but its pilot will eject in time.
Regardless, a few interface issues may get in the way of your efforts.
While you can manually set formations for your forces, unit formations
aren't handled nearly as well here as in some other recent real-time
strategy games, resulting in battles that are often very chaotic. Your
forces may frequently drift away from each other, so you'll often have
trouble focusing your fire on individual targets. The pathfinding for
your units is generally good--they'll conveniently move out of each
other's way, but sometimes you'll see a unit of yours sustaining damage
without returning fire, or maneuvering weirdly around buildings or other
obstacles. The game's menu screens look rushed when compared with the
polished in-game graphics. None of these are major problems, but they're
noticeable, and they might give you the sense that they could have been
fixed with just a bit more time.
One of the game's
new features is the "generals" ability system, which is basically an
experience system that lets you unlock new units, technologies, and
powers as you rack up kills. Much like the experience system used for
heroes in Warcraft III, the experience element featured in Generals lets
you spend points earned in successive victories on new abilities for
your faction. It's a good system that adds to the number of viable
strategic options in the game, letting you concentrate on some of your
faction's key strengths or gain an ace up your sleeve in the form of an
artillery attack or bombing run.
The
three factions themselves are about as different as can be. The USA has
the costliest but most technologically advanced units, plus the most
diverse and powerful air force. China has strength in numbers, and the
nation's relatively slow but powerful forces gain additional bonuses
when attacking in hordes. The GLA has no air force at all, and its
ramshackle units seem worse than those of the other two factions, but
these units can upgrade themselves using the scrap left behind by their
fallen foes, and the GLA's units are also the quickest and stealthiest
of the three factions, able to swarm around the battlefield using tunnel
networks. Each faction has some really interesting options. The USA's
ground vehicles can build support drones for scouting or combat, and its
rangers have flash-bang grenades that can devastate enemy troops.
China's overlord tanks are so enormous that you can build defensive
structures on their topsides, and its hackers can steal additional funds
or dismantle enemy structures. The GLA's terrorists can capture
civilian vehicles and use them to swiftly deliver deadly explosive
charges, and their tanks can be outfitted with radioactive shells to
better deal with enemy infantry. There are many more such examples for
each side. You could easily make a case for any of the game's factions
as the strongest, the coolest, or both.
These infantry units may look weak, but they can be surprisingly effective.
The three campaigns in Generals are short and disjointed, though the
game's single-player missions are all quite good on their own terms.
Rarely is the goal merely to wipe out the opposing forces, at least not
without performing some other interesting tasks first. Most real-time
strategy fans will find Generals to be a cakewalk at the default
"normal" difficulty setting. The "hard" and "brutal" settings will
provide more of a challenge, though even at these higher levels of
difficulty, you may still find the computer mindlessly sending its
forces into your kill zones. It should still make for a worthy opponent,
however, due to its ability to quickly muster its forces and its
tendency to occasionally surprise you. Of course, online play is really
where the action is, and Generals lets you easily get into an online
match and start racking up wins. A quick-play feature lets you jump into
a match against similarly ranked opponents, though the game
unfortunately forces you to play in 800x600 resolution to use this
option. You can still set up or join a custom match, and the game
includes a good number of maps for two to eight players that are
suitable both for skirmish and multiplayer. Plus, there's a "world
builder" utility available for making your own maps, though it's
undocumented and allegedly still in beta.
Generals
looks really, really good, though you'll need a system that meets or
exceeds the game's recommended requirements to get it to run smoothly.
White-hot pyrotechnics and outstanding particle effects make for what
are probably the best explosions of any real-time strategy game to date,
and you'll see no shortage of explosions during the typical Generals
match. The other effects and animations are also great, such as when a
pack of unlucky infantry is sent flying like so many rag dolls by a
nearby blast. The game's terrain graphics are superb, and all in all,
it's easy to forget that this is the first-ever fully 3D Command &
Conquer RTS, since it looks so good. Those without recent systems will
probably have to tone down the graphics options to keep the frame rate
from chugging, but even so, they'll be treated to the best-looking
C&C game yet.
The GLA needs to use hit-and-run tactics against the brute strength of the Chinese.
Meanwhile, the game's audio is a suitably remarkable counterpart to its
graphics. In another departure for C&C, Generals is the first game
in the series to feature musical themes exclusive to the playable
factions. Previous C&C games have used a catchy techno score
regardless of who was doing the fighting. In Generals, the USA's
campaign is accompanied by a number of triumphant military marches,
while China and the GLA have musical themes that establish their
respective Eastern and Middle Eastern origins, yet also come off
sounding grand and cinematic. Otherwise, you'll mostly just hear
countless types of booming explosions while playing the game. The three
factions' units all speak in English, though the Chinese and GLA units
have stereotypical accents that fit well with the game's
less-than-serious sensibility.
It may not take itself
seriously, but Command & Conquer: Generals is still a very
well-designed real-time strategy game, and it's unquestionably one of
the strongest entries in the series yet. It's totally first-rate from a
technical standpoint, and it's an all-around fun game to play on top of
that, with excellent pacing, great explosions, clever strategic twists, a
variety of units, and a fair amount of humor. It takes a few liberties
with some of the franchise's conventions, but the core gameplay of
Generals is still very much in the spirit of Command & Conquer, and
that's truly the best thing about it.
Torchlight
is one of those games that you're a little apprehensive about at first.
The dungeon-crawling genre has been hacked and rehashed so many times
that it can be difficult to distinguish the diamonds from the dirt.
Luckily, the same creative masterminds behind Diablo I and II aren't
content with resting on their laurels, as they reinvigorate the
isometric click-fest extravaganza that gamers have grown to love - thus
giving birth to Torchlight.
Gamers are welcomed to a charming and enchanting action-RPG
experience that will leave you hooked and itching for more. Slashing
and burning enemies is an absolute joy, and at a bargain-bin price of
only $20, you really can't go wrong.
Torchlight has old school roots but still feels fresh and current.
Set in the mining town of Torchlight itself, players are first tasked to
select from one of three preset character classes, which encompass
amalgamations of prototypical RPG
fare. First is the Destroyer, who specializes in melee attacks but can
also use magical powers. Second is the Vanquisher, who uses ranged
weaponry but moonlights as a thief, sneaking about and setting traps.
Finally, we have the Alchemist, who is more or less indistinguishable
from your run-of-the-mill mage. Despite the apparent simplicity and
superficiality of the classes, there is enormous depth to each, and you
still get a sidekick to boot.
After selecting the main character, you choose between a canine
companion and a feline friend who will accompany you on your journey,
aiding in attacks, scavenging loot, and even lugging your undesirables
back to town to sell for a quick buck. Your pet will have its own
inventory, complete with the ability to don amulets and carry your stuff
when you're feeling lazy (or your slots are full). You can also teach
it spells to be auto-cast during combat, and even pimp out your pet by
harvesting fish throughout the dungeons and transforming it into
something a little scarier. The designers did a good job of
implementing what is essentially a second playable character, without
making the gamer feel worried that either is being neglected. Your pet
will fare well on its own, but you'll still need to occasionally drop a
potion into its inventory to make sure it doesn't meet a premature
death.
Unless you've spent the better part of the last decade and a half
living on Easter Island and wondering why the inhabitants built those
nifty statues, you're probably familiar with how the game plays, as it
follows the lead from its predecessors. It truly is gaming at its
simplest: left-click to move your character or attack an enemy (hold it
down to keep moving) and right click to cast spells. To keep the
high-octane action flowing freely, the interface is appropriately
streamlined to allow quick health and mana recharges (you can select
shortcuts to appear at the bottom of the screen), as well as balancing
your attention between the primary character and the pet.
Just because you're a fighter doesn't mean you can't have hobbies.
Gamers may be skeptical about yet another dungeon crawler (and
rightfully so, there have been a few stinkers over the years), but this
game is just so damn addictive. Click, click, and click some more, the
game is the height of simplicity yet also the zenith of fun gaming.
Everything that's great about the genre is here, allowing for a refined
and enjoyable experience. You can even create your own items by
combining gems with weapons or spells, allowing for some unique
Game designers have long since understood the very basic formula
that keeps gamers hooked: if you give it, they will come. By
constantly rewarding the players with loot -- scrolls with learnable
magic, gold coins, and new weapons, to name a few -- players are
consistently made to feel that they're always getting just the right
amount of stuff to keep things interesting. Torchlight is an excellent
example of just the right balance of distributing both the rarities and
the essentials.
The areas where some gamers may take the greatest
exception lie in stat building and leveling up. The game's ease of
approach is both a blessing and a curse. At every new level, the player
is awarded experience points that may be used towards four preset
categories: strength, dexterity, magic, and defense. Further, the
player is given attribute points, which may be used to garner special
abilities that are not unique to any particular class. This creates a
framework for no class-specific skill tree, essentially allowing players
to create a Frankenstein's Monster if they so desire. Some action-RPG
veterans may feel shortchanged by the level advancement's simplicity.
However, while most cool spells or status bonuses are available to all
three classes, each class demands a different level requisite to use
them. So don't expect your barbarian to be casting Armageddon-inspired
spells before his magic-casting brethren may do so.
The game may seem simple but it's still very addictive.
The levels are wondrously constructed and feature a multitude of traps
and secret passageways. While boasting the appearance of design, the
dungeons are in fact randomly generated, making for a unique experience
on each play-through. Any prior misgivings about random generation will
quickly be forgotten as the game is relatively glitch-free, and an
absolute pleasure to visually digest. The action is relentless as
swarms of enemies will attack from all sides, ambushing you if possible,
or just overwhelming with brute force if necessary. It's rare to be
entirely backed into a corner, as the game code creates multiple paths
to the same destinations, allowing you to backtrack and reassess your
approach if taking on 20 enemies at once seems a little daunting.
While the entire game takes place in the subterranean depths below the town of Torchlight,
the environments still manage to vary wondrously in appearance and
theme. From your typical murky dungeons, to luscious forests, to fiery
pits of torment, the gamer is always treated to unique locales drawn on
the aforementioned tile sets.
This is one area where the game particularly shines, as the graphics
and character/enemy design range from breathtaking to downright
ludicrously silly. Torchlight boasts a highly stylized graphical style
where super-deformed characters and lavish baddies roam about
confidently and content with the way God made them. This isn't your
typical dark and dreary dungeon-crawler, as enemies will sometimes look
more humorous than scary, but they will still tear your head off should
they get the chance. The cartoon style implements a rich and
exceptionally bright color palette, and due to the nature of the beast,
will run across an array of gaming rigs. The game obviously looks
better if you've got a relatively updated graphics card, but there is
even a special netbook mode to allow for carefully crafted compatibility
across all configurations. The bare minimum requirements call for an
800 MHz CPU and a GeForce 2(!) video card.
The game scales to run on a surprising range of hardware.
The sound effects are appropriate and not entirely groundbreaking, but
the musical score is truly enchanting. Reprising his role as composer
of the soundtracks from the Diablo series, musical genius Matt Uelman
seamlessly integrates medieval tunes into the Torchlight universe.
Never overbearing but sometimes epic, the music, combined with the
wonderful graphics, truly immerses the player in the experience. The
voice work is also well done and never feels contrived or labored.
A seemingly odd omission (especially for a game in 2009) is a
multiplayer mode. This is a single-player exclusive, which may dissuade
some from downloading the game from Steam (the boxed version has yet to
arrive on shelves). Gamers will have to wait a while before Runic
releases the planned MMO based on the Torchlight universe. Conversely,
the lack of multiplayer does not detract from the game's overall initial
appeal, as it accomplishes all it sets out to do, and does it quite
well.
The Verdict
All in all, Torchlight
is a refreshing - though not revolutionary - dungeon crawler that will
occupy gamers for 10-15 hours on the first run-through, and perhaps
dozens more across varying difficulty levels and experiments with
different character classes. The story is somewhat lacking, but not
overly important when garnering quests and slaying beasts. You'll
quickly lose track of time whilst exploring the bowels of the town of
Torchlight, which is lovely for your sense of satisfaction, but bad for
the real life priorities you'll likely neglect, such as eating and
paying bills. The graphics are great, the music engrossing, and the
gameplay addictive. While the lack of multiplayer at first tastes
bitter, the single-player campaign more than makes up for it, as you
really have little to lose at the meager asking price of $20.
The Promised Land V3L | 170.6 Mb
An
untamed land of plenty lies before you, but the path to glory lies
within you in The Promised Land, a casual strategy game for the
adventurous at heart! Can you tame the New World before it tames you?
Even though Microsoft is unlikely to roll out major
changes in the upcoming Windows 9 operating systems, designers still
hope that Redmond would actually like their ideas and bring some
modifications to either the desktop or the Modern UI. 34moiso, who also created many other Windows 9 concepts, has integrated the Charms bar in the taskbar, a mix that's supposed to help users make the most of the Metro UI a bit faster. As
you can see in this screenshot, all charms are neatly integrated into
the taskbar, just near the Start Menu, along with power options and the
other desktop icons. The only problem is that charms are thus
eating up space on the taskbar and since some users don't really like
the Modern UI, such a hybrid might not tickle their fancy. Hopefully,
Microsoft would listen to some of these ideas before launching Windows
9, which according to some people close to the matter, should take place
in early 2015.
Transferring data from one location to another has always been a regular activity for any computer user.
Moving or copying a small number of large files or a rich batch of
lighter items files generally takes some time and Windows has been
known for not being quite the best alternative.
On the other hand, TeraCopy emerged as a free solution for personal use
that can carry out the task quickly and easily. Commercial use of the
application requires purchasing a license for the Pro version ($19.95 /
€14.60), which brings to the table additional features.
These include the possibility to transfer data to favorite folders,
saving reports as CSV or HTML logs, selecting files with the same
extension or removing items from the transfer list.
Installing the free version is simple and offers the possibility to
create a portable version of the program; however, in this case, you
will no longer be able to use it to replace the default copy handler in
the operating system.
Getting TeraCopy on the system is not filled with unexpected offers or
complicated dialogs. The procedure is short and requires little
attention, except for the part when you choose between the regular and
the portable version, which also allows creating a desktop icon and
associating SVF and MD5 files with it.
The interface has been reduced to a straightforward screen that makes
available options for defining the destination for the data that needs
to be processed and the type of the transfer (copy or move).
Adding the items is done by simply dragging and dropping them into the TeraCopy application window.
By default, an “abridged” application screen is presented, apparently
not providing access to more options. But clicking on the icon on the
titlebar provides access to the configuration panel. Alternatively, you
can extend the interface and access the “menu” in the lower right hand
part of the screen.
TeraCopy does not abound in options, but it provides integration in
various file managers such as Windows’ Explorer, Total Commander and
Directory Opus. It can also take over the file transfer in XYplorer.
By default, upon initiating a file transfer between two Explorer
instances, TeraCopy will ask whether you want to complete the action
with it or using the Windows solution. This pop-up can be eliminated
from TeraCopy’s configuration panel.
Other options present refer to enabling an audio alert when the job
finishes, checking for sufficient free space or tuning on testing after
copying the data. Furthermore, the application can use the system write
cache.
We put TeraCopy’s file transfer abilities to test against a large file
of 11.2GB as well as a batch of 2,076 smaller files weighing 3.28GB in
total. The reference point was the default solution provided by
Microsoft in Windows 8.
Not at all surprising, copying the large file from one partition to
another with TeraCopy completed faster. The best time recorded by the
application was 4’52’’ while Explorer finished the task 22 seconds
later.
Moving the file did not change things too much, but the third-party
alternative managed to improve its best time by about one second.
Handling the large number of smaller items was a bit tighter, as we
recorded a less steep difference. The fastest TeraCopy could copy the
data to a different partition was 1’56’’, while Explorer’s best time was
a little under two seconds more.
Cutting and pasting the folder to a different location maintained
TeraCopy ahead as it processed all the data in 1’58’’ and Explorer
lagged behind with eight seconds.
However, these are the best times recorded by the two utilities, but the
average does not place TeraCopy too much ahead the default solution
implemented by Microsoft in Windows when it comes to dealing with
numerous smaller files.
As far as transfer speed is concerned, the advantage depends chiefly on
the amount of data that has to be processed in order to save significant
time; otherwise, having a ten or even twenty second edge is not too
much of a gain.
On the other hand, TeraCopy brings to the table advantages that have yet
to be implemented by Microsoft, such as verification of data for
integrity or preserving the items that generated an error during their
processing for the user to solve the issue and resume the transfer.
The Good
During the installation process, you can create a portable copy of the
application. It can replace Windows Explorer transfers completely as
well as the operations in other file managers such as Total Commander,
Directory opus or XYplorer.
File transfers showed better speeds during our tests for both large files as well as smaller ones.
The Bad
There is little flexibility in modifying the transfer list: you can add
new items, but removing is limited to deleting them all, either by
sending to Recycle Bin or completely from the disk.
The Truth
TeraCopy
showed it can move faster than the default solution in Windows, but the
difference is not significant unless there is a very large amount of
files. Nevertheless, it has advantages of its own, such as integrity
verification of the data or skipping a file that is being processed in
order to prioritize other items.
Password of the Files XGk0Mlyb6NOxgw7eAD8KSXZp8HNP72OPn1jSgV477Mk Download TeraCopy 2.3
Keeping your passwords secure is not a
touch job anymore. There are plenty of great solutions, most of them
being free of charge and offering versions for mobile devices along with
synchronization service.
PasswordBox
can be used without shelling out a dime, with all features active, if
you don’t have more than 25 passwords to keep safe. For unlimited
password storage, the developer asks $12 / 8.73 EUR per year, which is
one of the lowest prices on the market.
There is also a way to get the full service for free; if you spread the
word and five of your friends create PasswordBox accounts, you get a
free lifetime license, a very strong incentive to adopting the service,
especially since it supports the most popular platforms (Windows, Mac,
iOS and Android).
Getting it on the system is dead easy because it is installs as an
extension, available for the most popular web browsers on the market:
Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Safari.
After installation, it’ll take its place in the web browser, at the end
of the address bar in Chrome and Firefox and under it in Microsoft’s IE.
The interface is quite simple, and at the beginning you’ll have to
define a master password and then a short tutorial explaining the
features and settings will follow.
To make things easier to a beginner, PasswordBox comes with a set of
preset websites you can log into for the first time and learn how fast
the app can save the details. Basically, you log into the account and
the app picks the credential details and stores them automatically.
The product seems to target beginner users because it asks if the same
user name and countersign are used for other online accounts and
provides a list of services to select from; a more experienced user
would choose different passwords for every service they subscribe to.
The interface is simple, with easy access to areas as well as the
password entries, which cannot be organized into groups as in other
alternatives on the market. However, most of the users will not feel the
need for this type of sorting because of the automatic grabbing and
input of the credentials.
Apart from passwords, the product can also store information that is
generally carried into a wallet (addresses, credit card, passport,
driver’s license details or social security numbers) as well as safe
notes (sensitive strings of text that need to be protected).
Keeping all this information secure is not a problem for PasswordBox.
According to the developer, the app relies on client-side encryption
(AES-256) and nothing leaves the user’s device unencrypted.
The master password is used for generating the encryption keys (random
salt and 10,000 rounds of PKCS5_PBKDF2_HMAC_SHA2 key derivation are
applied, which amounts to very strong security), so make sure you do not
lose it.
Furthermore, it is not stored anywhere, locally or remotely, at any time and data is encrypted one more time via SSL.
The functionality of PasswordBox extends to securely sharing
countersigns with family or trusted friends, a feature that is also
available in LastPass.
It also includes a legacy function, which actually assigns heirs to your
digital content in case something happens to you. The service is
invitation based and the heirs have all the content transferred to their
PasswordBox account, but only after the company receives and
authenticates the necessary documents.
The transfer can occur because the content is encrypted locally with a
second encryption key, specifically for this purpose, which is pushed to
the trusted accounts.
A built-in password generator ensures that you give up the bad habit of
using the same countersign for multiple accounts as the fields are
automatically detected and password generation function is offered when
registering.
It is a simple panel that can customize the secure strings (up to 26
characters) by mixing in letters (lower and upper case), digits,
symbols. A strength meter shows the level of security of the generated
line.
Auto-login is also available in the app, and it can be enabled individually, for each account.
Working with PasswordBox is extremely easy, but under advanced settings
there are some interesting options that can help a less experienced user
increase security. Creating a strong master password and a virtual
keyboard (good against keylogging) along with enabling timed auto-lock
can take the overall security level to extreme.
Implementing additional security is on the way, as options for
increasing key derivation, two-factor authentication and fingerprint
authentications features are on their way.
Making the switch from a different password manager should not be too
complicated, although the import function did not work as expected in
our case as the database we provided was partially included.
On the other hand, thanks to automatic capturing the credentials upon logging into an account, the data can be gradually added.
The Good
It works with all popular web browsers and automates logging in as well
as adding the credentials to its own database; it offers randomly
generated passwords when you sign up for a new account.
Secure sharing passwords with other users and the legacy function makes it easy to transfer data to trusted persons.
The Bad
Importing data is among its weak points and we also noticed that it
sometimes enters into offline mode, although we recorded no problem with
our Internet connection.
The Truth
PasswordBox
still needs to be polished around the edges, but it provides strong
security for the database and synchronization across supported devices
(Windows, Mac, iOS and Android). Its advantage consists in adding
credentials seamlessly and inputting them automatically.
Password of The Files DkUGMW6JyHf3AeJlbJFwZCbGlsIfX45B2DRlO0E4MjE
Late last year, Anno 2070 tried to explore the post-apocalyptic setting
of an Earth flooded by drastically risen sea levels, where Kevin
Costner would have to drink his own filtered pee. If you just wanted a
new Anno game with shinier graphics and a new, futuristic
setting, it offered a fun way to dabble in a rather depressing dualistic
future in which you tried to out-build hippies and evil industrialists.
If you wanted to use naval units to wage war on your enemies, however,
it was not the game to play. Enter Oil Rush, a strategy game that focuses purely on naval warfare in a similar setting and manages to both look and run better than Anno 2070 in the process.
Oil Rush (Windows PC [Reviewed], Mac, GNU/Linux) Developer: Unigine Corp. Publisher: Unigine Corp., Iceberg Interactive Released: January 25, 2011, January 27, 2011 (Steam, Desura, other digital distribution channels) MSRP: $19.99 Rig: Intel E8400 Core 2 Duo @ 3.0 GHz, 4GB RAM, Ati Radeon HD 4830 512MB, Windows 7 64-bit With the Anno 2070 comparison out of the way, Oil Rush
is truly its own game and quite a unique one at that. In a world where
oil is predominantly sought after by almost all of the surviving human
factions, you take on the role of a young commander who uses the
precious resource to send countless sailors and pilots to their watery
graves. The easiest way to describe Oil Rush might be to imagine a strange crossover between Z, Sins of a Solar Empire, and a pinch of the resource node system of Company of Heroes and Dawn of War II that cuts the map into strategic sectors. So imagine that, but on water. Each map features platforms that either generate oil -- your only
resource -- on a regular basis, or pump out units of a certain kind
until a platform-specific unit limit is reached. Contrary to most
strategy games, the units you create cannot be directly controlled. Once
created, they will circle the platform they were spawned from until you
move them to another platform. By selecting individual platforms or
groups of them, easily done by clicking and holding the mouse button as
you move the cursor over the platforms you want, you move all units to
strategically important platforms and form a small fleet. Except for the oil rigs and oil storage platforms, every platform can
support up to five different turrets to be built around it. Machine gun
turrets destroy weaker jet ski units and act as flak cannons when
upgraded, artillery turrets counter the more powerful ships, and
anti-air does what you'd expect it to do. In most levels in the campaign, the goal is to capture all the
platforms on the map. Capturing a platform is as easy as destroying any
naval defenders and turrets that surround it, but this is also where
things become complicated. Some enemy platforms are well-defended,
meaning you will have to move most of your units to one or two platforms
and create a force that can deal a forceful blow to punch through,
rather than merely tickle, the continuously self-repairing enemy
defensive emplacements. Since any unit-producing platform can only create so many units, you
inevitably have to leave a few platforms undefended until you have saved
up enough oil to build turrets around them. This leads to a fast-paced
type of gameplay where you try to amass units quickly, break through
defensive units and positions, take over a platform, and immediately
focus on dealing with potential enemy counter attacks. Playing through Oil Rush's campaign, you'll constantly find
yourself in a position where you need to balance the benefit of sending a
large fleet of your units to take over a platform that will give you
even more units, with the risk of losing half your fleet and being
unable to defend multiple counters by the AI. Because you can't directly
control your units, you can't just place them in strategic places to
close off paths to your key platforms. They are either en route to
another platform, circling a platform, or they can be recalled to the
platform they came from. If you ordered them from one place to another and the enemy attacks
the platform next to the one they started out from, there is no way to
just redirect them to that one platform that is going to come under
attack. You could intercept the approaching enemy units by moving
another nearby fleet to a platform alongside the enemy's path and
sending it away at the right moment, but that takes a great deal of
micromanagement. While this can be annoying, it's also a matter of adjusting to the type of gameplay that Oil Rush's
design encourages. It takes a few missions to get used to, and a fair
amount of instances where whenever you take one platform, the enemy
sneakily takes another one. As your oil rigs cannot support turrets, you
always need to be on the lookout for enemy movement on the minimap and
move units to protect your income before you lose momentum. Meanwhile,
destroying more enemies will give you more experience to unlock perks in
the tech tree. These upgrades range from increased firepower and armor
for your units and turrets, to being able to summon a repair vessel and
cast buffs and debuffs on platforms. These "spells" you unlock costs oil
to use, though, which forces you to decide between a brief tactical
benefit and building or upgrading another turret to help you in the long
run. Once you get into the mode of play that Oil Rush expects
from you, it's one of the freshest takes on the strategy genre in a
while. It also looks far more beautiful that it ought to on my three
year old rig, thanks to the relatively unknown Unigine Engine.
Supporting DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.0, and all the graphical wizardry you'd
expect from an engine like CryEngine 3 or the latest iteration of
Unreal Engine 3, the technical skill we've come to expect from Russian
programmers is evident in the way the Unigine Engine manages to display
impressive graphics at a frame rate I didn't even know my old graphics
card could still handle. A side effect of the Russian display of skill is that the game
currently has a tendency to crash randomly, sometimes requiring a
ctrl-alt-del to get back in control of your desktop. This might be a
memory leak issue for the Windows version that hopefully will be patched
after launch, but it occurred too many times to ignore. Still, the game
boots and loads very fast and auto-saves work well enough to quickly
get back to where you crashed. Slightly less worthy of praise than the graphics is how the
fast-paced platform-hopping gameplay trains you to keep your eye on the
mini-map at tall times. The engine wants you to enjoy your fleet as it
majestically cuts through the water to engage the enemy (there is even a
dedicated cinematic camera key binding that is explained in the
tutorial), but the gameplay encourages you to look at the little map in
the bottom-right of the screen. It is in that area that instead of
enjoying a graphical showcase of naval power, you watch dots scurry
around like ants with you as the hive queen overlord in control of it
all. From time to time you'll be tempted to watch the result of sending
all your units to attack a well-defended platform, enjoying explosions
that shoot out plumes of smoke and send out debris to sink below the
surface of the seas. Then you look on the mini-map and see that two of
your platforms are about to be overrun while your own units are half a
minute away from coming to the rescue. It would also have been nice if you could set rally points for your
platforms so that any new units will automatically group up at a staging
platform. There are options to send 25%, 50% or 100% of your units when
selecting any platform, as well as the option to deselect units you'd
like to stay behind regardless of what percentage you are sending away.
But if you want to split your fleet in two, you'll have to first click
the 50% icon, send the fleet away, and then click the 100% icon again
lest you split the remaining 50% of your units in half. Likewise, you
can assign any platform or platforms to numeral keys as shortcuts, but
it's just far easier to manually click on everything in a
micromanagement fashion. For a budget price, Oil Rush offers one of the first
strategy surprises of the year. The simple design of hop-skip-jump
platform fights hides layers of depths that make it an easy-to-learn,
hard-to-master arcade naval warfare experience. However, the true depth
and tests of skill are more likely to be found in multiplayer than in
the decently sized campaign or the good amount of skirmish maps
available to the player -- although the singleplayer components will
entertain you for a while. The small team behind the title did a good
job creating a story campaign out of the core gameplay, but never hides
that Oil Rush feels made for fast-paced multiplayer. Because you may not even have heard of this game until you started
reading this review, the availability of online opponents or partners
for a team-based match may be a point of concern. Oil Rush did
have a pre-order beta that seems to have had a fair amount of interest,
but it wouldn't hurt to coax a friend into buying it with you. At the
time of writing I was unable to find any online opponents, but it is
the type of RTS that will make for quick ten minute rounds and longer
drawn-out matches, depending on both your own skill and the skill of
your opponent. Currently, the game can only be bought through the
UNIGINE Online Store, but you will be allowed to activate your key on
Steam and Desura when the game releases on those platforms in a few
days. Hopefully the larger presence and easier accessibility will lead
to a larger online playerbase as well. What could have been a messy title merely created to showcase the
Unigine Engine has turned out to be a surprisingly polished and deep
strategy game. Oil Rush isn't just a joy to behold in action, but manages to make an old genre feel fresh while looking the part.
Governor
Of Poker 2 adalah salah satu game poker offline. Walaupun ini
merupakan game lama, ttapi karena melihat banyaknya pecinta Texas Holdem
Poker, maka saya share game Governoor of Poker 2 ini. Dalam game ini
ceritanya adalah Petinggi Perjudian Di Texas telah mengumumkan permainan
kartu adalah illegal dan membanned semua permainan Poker. hal ini
membuat anda sebagai pemain melawan aturan ini, anda sebagai
pemegang
gelar Governor Of Poker memprotes bahwa tidak ada Texas tanpa Poker !
bertarung untuk kebenaranmu untuk bermain Poker dan mengalahkan 100
lawan berbeda. Ini waktumu, ini waktu untuk Governor Of Poker.
Rasakan semangat dari Wild
West dan jalan-jalan ke kota baru dan tempat Poker. Dalam Governor of
Poker 2 anda akan senang dengan banyak macam-macam turnamen atau
mengorganisir turnamen milikmu sendiri. Apakah kamu siap untuk memberi
kejutan kepada Pemerintah Texas ? Mainkan Governor of Poker 2 dan lihat
siapa yang benar !
The zombie apocalypse. Be honest: You've
thought about it. When most humans have been turned into shambling,
flesh-hungry monsters, how will you fare? Whether you fancy yourself an
intrepid survivor or an infected savage, Left 4 Dead is the game for
you. Battling your way through the grim, desolate world is always tense
and challenging, thanks to the unpredictable, relentless enemies. It's
equally thrilling to play as one of the zombies (aka the infected),
coordinating deadly ambushes as you try to kill the survivors.
Nevertheless, Left 4 Dead's well-crafted gameplay simply must be
experienced in multiplayer. Human teammates (or enemies) make each
play-through dynamic, mitigating the game's two hang-ups: limited map
selection and uninspired friendly AI. Despite these hitches, Left 4 Dead
is a remarkably fun, excitingly tense game that will make you want to
revisit the apocalypse again and again.
There are four campaigns in Left 4 Dead, each spanning five levels.
The first four levels end in safe houses (places to heal and rearm free
of the zombie menace), and the final level ends in a desperate stand as
you wait for your rescue vehicle to arrive. You'll travel through urban,
suburban, and rural areas, each one grim, desolate, and littered with
evidence of the apocalyptic event. You never learn exactly what
happened, but the rich environments and thoughtful graffiti set the
stage expertly. One campaign on normal difficulty (the second of four
tiers) takes about an hour to complete, so you'll soon become familiar
with each set of maps. Although the limited selection and grim, overcast
color palette can sometimes feel a bit repetitious, the dynamic
enemies, varying weapon and ammo spawns, and ever-changing human factor
combine to make each play-through feel surprisingly unique.
Left 4 Dead stars four charismatic survivors whose appearances and
personalities add an immersive element to the game. They each banter in
appropriate, often amusing ways when healthy, and they become more
subdued and anxious when injured. The character models are top-notch,
and there's nothing quite like looking at the macho biker when he is
injured and seeing fear creep across his face as he begins to doubt that
he'll survive. Seeing the relief on his face when you heal him is
almost as satisfying as the relief you'll feel when your AI allies heal
you. Their team spirit doesn't stop there: they'll shout out when the
find ammo or health, and, crucially, will pick you up when you've been
incapacitated by an enemy.
For all of their good
qualities, you'll definitely appreciate your fellow survivors more when
there's human controlling them. AI teammates are definitely competent
when it comes to killing the infected, rescuing you from the enemy's
clutches, and reviving you when you're down. However, they aren't
particularly keen on using explosives or defending strategically, so
while you choose to camp out on an elevated platform to better defend
against the horde, they generally won't be inclined to join you. Though
you can certainly end up with equally uncooperative human teammates, you
can at least communicate your strategy to them or, in a pinch, call an
on-the-fly vote to boot them from the game.
When you play with one or more competent teammates, Left 4 Dead is an
absolute blast. Even if you've played every level many times, you'll
still find the infected are distributed in different, unpredictable
patterns. They may be milling around in a parking lot, half-oblivious to
your passing, or they may come screaming at you from around a corner or
over a building. They look nasty, run fast, scream hideously, claw
viciously, and, best of all, they die in a wide variety of superbly
animated ways (often with explosive decapitations or flying limbs). You
might get jumped in a hallway, stairwell, both, or neither. Each area of
the level becomes a potential battleground, so you have to be
constantly vigilant, ready to make a defensive stand or rescue a
teammate at a moment's notice.
The difficulty
changes as you play. The game throws tougher, more numerous foes at
dominant survivors and offers periods of respite or more frequent
resupply to beleaguered teams. You carry one primary weapon, like a
shotgun or assault rifle, as well as one (or two) pistols with unlimited
ammunition. You can also pick up pipe bombs and molotov cocktails,
which are each fantastically deadly in their own unique ways. These
powerful explosives, along with primary weapon ammo and health boosts,
are vital to your survival. However, supplies are often hidden in rooms
that are slightly off the beaten path, and slowing down to explore more
areas will put you at higher risk for a zombie attack. This risk-reward
element adds another strategic consideration, which further ramps up the
tension. There are so many ways that your journey could go awry, from
human error to strategic miscalculation to flat-out zombie inundation,
that you'll have to be constantly on your toes to adapt if you hope to
survive. It is this tension that keeps each campaign uniquely
challenging and makes survival so fantastically rewarding.
Of course, your goal isn't always survival. When you play Versus mode,
it is often the exact opposite. Two teams of up to four players each
compete for points in this mode. Survivors earn points by progressing
through the campaigns, though only two of the four are playable in this
mode. The infected earn points by damaging and killing survivors, and
the teams switch sides at the end of each level. Furthermore, the
infected players spawn as zombies with special powers. Boomers vomit on
survivors, marking them as targets for the ravenous horde of normal
zombies; smokers lasso survivors with a long, froglike tongue; hunters
pounce and viciously tear survivors apart; and the rare tank just
smashes everyone with his massive bulk. It's frightening enough to
encounter these uniquely deadly enemies in the campaign mode, dealing
with their disgusting sounds and vicious attacks that seem to come at
the worst times. It's a whole different level of horror when you know
it's your friend who has pinned you down and is clawing out your guts.
For survivors, Versus mode is a faster-paced game because the longer
you take, the more opportunities the infected have to ambush you. For
the infected, it's a whole different Left 4 Dead experience. Instead of
fighting your way through an endless, nebulous enemy force as you drive
toward your objective, you have to plan and execute targeted strikes on a
small, mobile group. The areas you once plotted to defend now become
grounds for ambush. There are even certain walls that the infected can
climb or break through, creating entirely new routes for moving through
each level. Zombie players have to be careful because they are much
weaker than survivors and can easily fall victim to bullets from any of
the game's well-tuned weapons. However, they will continue to spawn
until the survivors die or reach safety, so they have multiple
opportunities to spring attacks throughout the level. It's very
satisfying to vomit on your survivor friends, summoning the horde to
devour them. It's a whole different level of awesomeness to drag them
out of the resulting chaos and slowly choke them to death as they
desperately call for help.
Between the tense campaign
and the frenetic Versus mode, Left 4 Dead offers two distinct flavors
of multiplayer action that are equally delicious when enjoyed with
friends. The single-player experience (and the marginally better but
somewhat sluggish split-screen mode) isn't as tasty, simply because the
friendly AI can't compare to a human teammate. Between play sessions,
you may find yourself craving more maps, but once you're in the game,
you'll be so consumed by your quest to survive that you'll likely be
grateful for your knowledge of the terrain. It's a tricky proposition
for a game to serve up such seemingly meager variety, but Left 4 Dead
does so with panache, and gamers will likely be enjoying this recipe for
a long time.
Carlos Finlay's Google doodle on December 3. Photograph: Google
Google's latest doodle celebrates the birthday of Carlos Finlay,
the Cuban physician and scientist who theorised that yellow fever was
spread by mosquitoes. Of French and Scottish descent, Finlay was
born in 1833 in Puerto Príncipe, now the Cuban city of Camagüey, and
studied at Jefferson medical college in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He
finished his studies in Havana and Paris before settling in Cuba to open
a medical practice. Finlay was appointed by the Cuban government
in 1879 to work with a North American commission studying the causes of
yellow fever, and two years later was sent as the Cuban delegate to the
fifth International Sanitary Conference in Washington DC. At the
conference, he urged the study of yellow fever vectors and later stated
that the carrier was the mosquito Culex fasciatus, now known as Aedes
aegypti. When a US army's Yellow Fever Board arrived in Cuba in 1900, he sought to persuade it of his mosquito-vector theory. Finlay's
hypothesis and exhaustive proofs were confirmed by the board's head,
the US army doctor Walter Reed, paving the way for the eradication of
yellow fever and saving generations of lives throughout South America,
the Caribbean, Africa and the southern US. As General Leonard
Wood, a physician and military governor of Cuba, put it: "The
confirmation of Dr Finlay's doctrine is the greatest step forward made
in medical science since Jenner's discovery of the vaccination." Finlay died in August 2015 from a stroke caused by severe brain seizures in his home in Havana.
