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Topics - Deozaan [ switch to compact view ]

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351
Developer's Corner / Testosterone and Competitive Play
« on: November 04, 2009, 01:57 PM »
Danc over at LostGarden has written an interesting article on how competitive games reward or punish different groups of players.

Lately I've been digging into research on testosterone. Over the past decade, scientists have been placing players in competitive situations and then measuring how their testosterone fluctuations predict future behavior. What you find from looking at the studies is that both winners and losers will leave your game if they are placed in a set of predictable situations involving dominance, luck, and friendship.

There are four points that have experimental support:
  • How playing with friends affects the testosterone in winning and losing players
  • How playing with strangers affects the testosterone in winning in losing players
  • How perception of the role of luck or skill in the outcome affects the testosterone of players.
  • How players differ by pro-social or pro-dominance inclination.

352
Found Deals and Discounts / Everything Half-Life 55.8% off!
« on: October 17, 2009, 10:06 PM »
Half-Life hero Gordon Freeman won GameSpot's All Time Greatest Game Hero award by 55.8% of the vote. In honor of winning that award, Steam is offering all games Half-Life related for 55.8% off this weekend only.

Half-Life Games on Steam

353
Hi all!

My sister asked me to help her set up a simple website for her photography business. Her needs seemed simple enough to me that I thought I could do it with a WordPress site. However, there are a few specific needs she has that I'm having a hard time finding plugins for.

Basically what I need is some sort of Photo Album plugin that allows for multiple albums and the option to password protect certain albums. The reason for this is that she wants to be able to have her customers view proofs of the photos and she wants to password protect photos, especially those of children.

Also acceptable would be a (cheap or free) webservice (Flickr?) that already does something like this and then a WordPress plugin that integrates that webservice into WordPress.

Any tips and help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

354
Found Deals and Discounts / World of Goo: Name Your Price!
« on: October 14, 2009, 03:14 PM »
World of Goo is celebrating it's first birthday by allowing you to buy the game at any price you choose.

WoG_orderButton_bday.gif
(on the linked page, scroll down and look for the above image)


World of Goo is a great game that has been mentioned at this site before: Click here to see the previous thread about World of Goo.

If you haven't gotten it yet, now is the time!

355
DcUpdater / Drag and Drop not working in Windows 7
« on: October 10, 2009, 12:01 AM »
I just installed DcUpdater on Windows 7 and in the options where I set the directories of where to look for update files it says "Drag and Drop enabled"

But I can't drag and drop from Windows Explorer. The mouse icon turns into a circle with a slash through it.

356
Found Deals and Discounts / Left 4 Dead for $15 (50% off)
« on: September 29, 2009, 03:25 PM »
Hi everyone!

Steam is having a sale to commemorate some new (free) DLC called Crash Course. So now you can buy Left 4 Dead for 50% off, which is $15 USD, or you can buy a 4-pack for $45 USD (which is essentially buy 3 get 1 free).

Left 4 Dead on Steam.

As always, I'm willing to gift the game to anyone for whatever reason can't buy it themselves. Just PayPal the money to me first (and a little extra to cover PayPal fees) to paypal (at) deozaan (dawtt) com and be sure to include a note on which game(s) you want and what e-mail address you want me to send the gift to.

357
Living Room / Help with Toshiba Portege M200 Tablet PC
« on: September 22, 2009, 01:19 PM »
Hi all,

A friend of mine has a Toshiba Portege M200 Tablet PC that's so infested with viruses and who knows what that the PC doesn't even know how to run exe files anymore. Nothing runs except Internet Explorer.

My friend would have just formatted and reinstalled himself, but the machine doesn't have an optical drive. I have an external drive I can plug an optical drive into, and have done that. But I can't figure out how to get the machine to boot from CD. I don't even know how to get into the BIOS.

Pushing F8 brings up an advanced boot menu which has options to boot into safe mode or reboot or boot normally, etc. Pressing F2 or F12 shows a few images: The first one looks like 3 CDs stacked on top of each other. The next one looks like a single CD. The next one looks like an SD card and a floppy disk. The next one looks like two computers networked together. And the final one looks like a stick of RAM.

I interpret these to mean: Boot from HDD, boot from CD, boot from floppy/removable media, boot from LAN, and possibly access BIOS? The problem is that they all go straight into booting Windows except boot from LAN, which tries to access something on the LAN.

So I can't tell if the machine even recognizes the external (USB) optical drive because I can't check the BIOS and I can't figure out how to get the machine to boot from CD. It does recognize it from within Windows and even launches the Auto Run menu, but when I click the button to install Windows it doesn't do anything, probably because the machine doesn't know how to run exe files.

Does anyone who has used a Portege, perhaps even this model, have any tips on how to get the machine to boot from CD or get into the BIOS? I don't have the instruction manual or any of the original information that might have come with the Portege.

Any useful information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

358
Living Room / Game Du Jour SURPRISE!
« on: August 29, 2009, 02:16 AM »
Did anyone else just get a strange email from the Game du Jour notification/subscription thingy?

I think their subscription list was hacked, because it was like a goatse-like game with accompanying screenshot. But today's Game du Jour is Depths of Peril.

I'm sure we'll hear more about this soon.

359
Okay, so when I first was learning programming, I learned to create code blocks with the curly bracket on the starting line, like so:

Code: ActionScript [Select]
  1. function myFunction() {
  2.   // multiple lines of code here
  3. }

But since I've been using Torque Game Builder and coding in TorqueScript, the standard practice is to open the block of code on a new line so that the opening and closing brackets are lined up:

Code: ActionScript [Select]
  1. function myFunction()
  2. {
  3.   // multiple lines of code here
  4. }

That's fine and all, and I've successfully made the transition in coding style, and this topic isn't really about the personal preference of where to put the opening bracket of a code block. The question really is, how does this style work when immediately opening up another block of code, for example from an else statement? This is how it seems natural to me, coming from my background putting the bracket on the same line as the code that indicates I'm about to open a block of code (see line 4 below).

Code: ActionScript [Select]
  1. if (statement)
  2. {
  3.   // multiple lines of code here
  4. } else {
  5.   // multiple lines of code here
  6. }

But if I'm trying to stay consistent with putting opening brackets on a new line, should I do it like this?

Code: ActionScript [Select]
  1. if (statement)
  2. {
  3.   // multiple lines of code here
  4. } else
  5. {
  6.   // multiple lines of code here
  7. }

But then that looks weird, so should it be

Code: ActionScript [Select]
  1. if (statement)
  2. {
  3.   // multiple lines of code here
  4. }
  5. else
  6. {
  7.   // multiple lines of code here
  8. }

But then the else looks strange all by its self.

I'm confused... Any tips and reasons on the "proper" or "best" way to handle this?

360
General Software Discussion / Chrome Experiments
« on: August 24, 2009, 04:51 PM »
We think JavaScript is awesome. We also think browsers are awesome. Indeed, when we talk about them, we say they are the cat's meow – which is an American expression meaning AWESOME.

In light of these deeply held beliefs, we created this site to showcase cool experiments for both JavaScript and web browsers.

These experiments were created by designers and programmers from around the world using the latest open standards, including HTML5, Canvas, SVG, and more. Their work is making the web faster, more fun, and more open – the same spirit in which we built Google Chrome.

One of the featured experiments is something called Twitch. What's cool about it is that it's a series of tiny switch games that take anywhere from 10 seconds to a couple of minutes to finish, and they open up in a series of different windows that all are connected. Take a look at (and click) the image for more information about Twitch.



large.png


Note that these experiments are generally only tested/designed to work with Google Chrome and may not work in other browsers.


from http://www.chromeexperiments.com/

361
Adventures of Baby Cody / United States of America
« on: July 30, 2009, 12:27 AM »
I'd be happy to welcome BabyCody to the US of A!

362
Living Room / Google Voice!
« on: July 16, 2009, 02:05 AM »
I just received an e-mail this evening inviting me to try out Google Voice (USA Only for now). I'd never heard of it until I received the invitation and I'm not even sure how I got signed up to be invited. I wasn't invited by any specific person.

So what is Google Voice? To be honest, I'm still not entirely sure. They gave me a free local phone number that anybody can call (and it was activated immediately). I can set it up to forward to any of my "real" phone numbers. When I signed up, I started out with a voicemail in my inbox, which was automatically transcribed for me:

Welcome to Google Voice! Google Voice gives you a single phone number that rings all your phones, saves your voicemail online, and transcribes your voicemail to text. Other cool features include the ability to listen in on messages while they are being left and the ability to make low cost international calls. To start enjoying Google Voice, just give out your Google Voice number. You can record custom greetings for your favorite callers or block annoying callers by marking them as SPAM. Just click on the settings link at the top of your inbox. We hope you enjoy Google Voice.

Here are a few things I think sound cool about the service: Since I already have a Google Android phone (G1) all my contacts in my phone are in my Gmail and in my Google Voice account. Also, there's an application for the Android phones so that you can have the mobile phone use Google Voice for all calls, international calls only, or no calls. And I can put a call widget online:

Call Widgets can be put on any web page, and allow people to call from that web page. When somebody clicks on the widget, we call them and connect them to you. Your number is always kept private. You can create multiple call widgets and have different settings for each of them.

The about page says that Google Voice invitations are only being sent out to users of Google GrandCentral, but I've never heard of that until today. Maybe I was invited because I'm using a G1? Or maybe I signed up for something several months ago and simply forgot entirely about it? I don't know. But Google Voice seems interesting, so I'm going to start using it and see how it goes.

363
Back when Google Chrome launched, I downloaded the beta, played with it for a few minutes and promptly uninstalled it. Dismissing it as pointless and redundant (not to mention not nearly as good as Firefox).

Recently I found out my brother uses Chrome and I asked him why and he mentioned a couple of things that got me interested in trying it again: It launches faster than Firefox and each tab runs in its own process so if one tab crashes it doesn't bring down the entire browser.

Has anyone else been using it for a while now? What do you think about it?

I noticed it doesn't have (true) extensions and thus AdBlock, so it's annoying to have ads showing up on websites I've never seen them on before, but other than that, what's the general consensus for people who have been giving it a try?

364
This game was just recently released in Japan for the Nintendo Wii's WiiWare service. It will be coming to the NTSC-U and PAL regions at a later date. It actually looks really fun and seems like a great idea for a new take on the Tower Defense genre.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles My Life as a Dark Lord may have a name that's similar to predecessor My Life as a King, but the two games are nothing alike.

Although not immediately apparent, Dark Lord feels like a unique take on the tower defense genre. Like a tower defense game, your goal is to strategically position troops to make sure that advancing enemies aren't able to make it from a starting point -- the base of your tower -- to an end point -- the top of your tower.

Different from tower defense titles, you have the added element of having to add new floors to your tower in real time in order to house your troops. The floors themselves have gimmicks, which can be used to attack enemies or heal monsters depending on the floor type. They also have HP and can be destroyed if directly attacked by the enemy multiple times.

Take a look at the website (click the image below) for some videos of it in action.



2132383947_view.jpg



from Joystiq.com

365
I got an e-mail from TigerDirect advertising this powerful system for $1700 + about $50 shipping.

TigerDirectPC.jpg

Well, my eyes got wide and I felt that yearning desire like a child who had just seen the coolest bicycle in the window of a store but knew he (his family) couldn't afford it.

So I wondered if I could take a look at the specs and build something approximately as powerful for less money. Oddly enough, neither the processor nor the motherboard were in stock at TigerDirect so I turned to NewEgg. At first I was going to try to build the exact same machine, but when I found out that the motherboard is also out of stock at NewEgg, I started looking for substitutes (which also help cut down on costs). This is the machine I came up with:

Case: Antec Performance One P180 Silver cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower: $140.
Motherboard: MSI X58 Platinum SLI LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard: $220.
GPUs: 2x EVGA GeForce 9800 GT Superclocked Edition 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI-E 2.0 x16 SLI: $130x2 = $260 - $40 Mail in Rebates (MiRs).
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC: $120 -$20 MiR.
CPU: Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920: $280.
RAM: 12GB (2x CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Model TR3X6G1600C9): 2x$100 = $200.
HDD: WD Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5": $100.

Extras:
CPU Fan: Thermaltake CL-P0508 110mm CPU Cooler : $60
Thermal Gel: Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound: $9.
WiFi Adapter: LINKSYS WMP300N 32-bit PCI Interface High-speed Wireless-N: $65.

Total: $1454 (before Mail in Rebates) + about $10 shipping since most of these items have free shipping. There are $60 of Mail-in-Rebates so at the end of it all it will be just over $1400.

The only thing that I can tell that is missing from the original PC advertised at TigerDirect is a DVD-RW Dual Layer, but I have one in an older computer I could salvage. Also a keyboard and mouse, but once again I could salvage both of those from my old computer. Oh yeah, and the TigerDirect PC comes with Vista Premium 64-bit. I have Vista Ultimate 64-bit from an MSDN subscription as a benefit for being in college for Computer Science, so I don't need to buy the OS.

I could probably also salvage my wifi card from my old PC and I probably don't really need the Thermaltake CPU cooler since the Core i7 comes with a fan and heatsink.

My question(s) though are:

1. Can anything really make use of 12GB of RAM these days? Naturally I'd have 64-bit Vista on it until I got Windows 7 (RTM?). I am a gamer and I like to have tons of applications open at the same time, but isn't 12GB overkill?

2. Is there anything in this list that has a substitute that is just as good but costs less? Or maybe something that is better but costs the same? For example, are the GPUs sufficient? I'm looking for a good trade-off between cost and power (not electricity). I pretty much picked these two GPUs because they were the ones (or similar to the ones) in the $1700 PC. Or maybe something on this list that just isn't good quality and I really ought to spend more money for high quality hardware? For example, is the PSU sufficient or should I go for a 1000w PSU?

3. Is there anything NOT in this list that should be? Am I forgetting something important like cables or connectors or something that should be obvious and is necessary like a CPU? Is anything glaringly incompatible with something else in this list? I didn't consider, for instance, making sure there are 64-bit drivers for Vista for the WiFi Adapter. I almost didn't think of getting a Thermal Compound, either.

Just remember that the more expensive this thing gets, the less likely it is that I'll be able to buy it. The cheaper it gets, the more likely it is I'll be able to buy it. However, the less powerful it gets, the more likely I'd rather wait until prices come down or until I have more money so I can still consider it a (realistic) dream PC.

And just for reference, here's my current machine's specs:

Case: Not sure what brand, just some mid-tower ATX case.
Motherboard: Abit uGuru AX8 K8T890.
GPU: EVGA GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB 2xDVI.
PSU: Antec EA-380 (380w) 80 Plus.
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (2.25 Ghz).
RAM: 2GB (2x 1GB) (not sure what speed or anything else about them).
HDDs: 880 GBs (80GB Maxtor SATA, 300GB Maxtor SATA, 500GB Western Digital SATA).

Other:
WiFi: U.S. Robotics Wireless MAXg PCI.
Optical: NEC DVD-RW Dual Layer (ND-3550A)
CPU Fan: Thermaltake A1
Keyboard: EluminX Sapphire.
Mouse: Logitech Trackman Wheel (which is going bad... :( ).
Monitors: ViewSonic VX992 (19" LCD) and DCLCD (19" LCD).
Speakers: CodeGen S3-001 45W 2.1 speakers.

EDIT: I are good at teh English.

366
Living Room / One Cool Chameleon
« on: May 07, 2009, 02:26 PM »
To be honest, I don't know if this is real or not, since I don't know how chameleons work, but if this is really how they change colors, this is amazing!

vlcsnap-6899657.png
Click for YouTube Video


Check out the video for more. Sorry that it's in WMV format. I got this video in an e-mail and that's how it came.

EDIT: After cursory research, I've found that chameleons don't really work this way. Sure would be cool if they did, though. :)

367
Living Room / Cell Phone recommendations?
« on: April 12, 2009, 12:28 AM »
I've been happily and contentedly without a cell phone since last October and went purely to using Skype for all my phone needs. It's amazingly freeing not being interrupted by a phone all the time and not being able to even hear the phone ring (since all sound from the PC is routed through the headphones). It's been a peaceful, simple life.

However, that must come to an end now. It is now necessary for my wife and I to get cell phones. Since I generally hate talking to people on phones I never cared about what features they had since all I needed was something that would allow me to call other people. But this time I have certain requirements and I'm hoping that DC members can help suggest phones and/or service to meet my needs.

Here are my requirements:

  • Speaker Phone
  • Can do 3-way (or conference) calls
  • Can show video
  • Has a keyboard layout for easy text entry
  • Internet
  • Can store lots of contacts
  • GPS/Maps would be useful
  • BlueTooth would be useful as well

That's all I can think of for my needs for features. Here's some more information for you to help customize your responses to my wants/needs:

  • I found out recently that my netbook has something in it called 3G, which I think allows me to get internet access anywhere I have cell service or something like that. I supposed it would be useful to be able to make use of that, so if you know a phone that can do that and/or a service that provides that, I'd be interested in learning more.
  • I am generally a hater of Apple products for a variety of reasons, so I'm wary of the iPhone. But I won't let my prejudices get in the way of getting the right phone. If the iPhone really is that great, then maybe I'll consider the steep price tag and the two year commitment to AT&Ts services required to use it.
  • If you have a specific phone model for me, please also recommend some good accessories such as bluetooth headset/earpiece, car charger, etc.
  • If you can also provide price and where to buy, that would greatly be appreciated!
  • If you know specific phones/carriers/accessories to avoid, please let me know and explain why I should avoid them.

Thanks in advance!

368
Okay, so the subject seems to describe just about any media player out there already, but I couldn't think of how else to describe it.

I've had an idea recently that I think would be incredible for media players. It may already exist, or it may not be possible to do; I don't know about the inner workings of how data is stored in audio files. Anyway, the tagging I'm talking about is different than, say ID3v2 tags for MP3s. The kind of tagging I'm talking about is more like the kind of tagging people do on the internet. Short tags that describe and categorize the music based on personal associations (emotion, feeling, genre, instruments, events, whatever).

For instance, a techno song might have the tags "energetic, techno, happy, graduation, Sarah" or whatever you personally associate with that song.

What I think would be great is if there was a media player that allowed you to tag songs in this manner, that could also create playlists on the fly from your tags. You could select the "instrumental, depressing, new age, techno" tags and it would create a playlist of all songs that had at least one of those tags. Or perhaps you could customize it even further and require that the song must have x number of those n tags to be included in the playlist.

Is there anything out there that already does this? If not, is this something that would be feasible to implement with current audio formats?

369
Living Room / Anti-Necrospamming
« on: March 26, 2009, 07:11 PM »
There's been a trend where spammers will revive an old thread that hasn't been posted in for several months or longer. Sometimes the spam has to do with the original thread (which is why it is revived) and sometimes it just happens to be a place to spam.

I thought it might be a good idea to automatically lock threads that haven't been posted in for, say, more than 6 months (though the length of time is debatable). This would actually serve 3 purposes:

1) It would prevent spammers from resurrecting old threads.
2) It would prevent new members from resurrecting old threads (they don't always realize the date on threads when they're new to the forum).
3) It would prevent regular members from getting confused when old threads are resurrected and not realizing the original post was made 3 years ago.

Additionally, if someone wanted to continue a conversation on a dead thread or start up a related topic, perhaps there could be a method of easily starting a new thread in the same forum section that links to the dead thread. This would allow new conversations to be brought up about old topics while allowing people to read the old material, but only contributing new material, thus keeping most of the information in the new topic up to date and relevant.

So what do the rest of you think? Good idea? Bad? Got a better suggestion? Indifferent?

370
Living Room / Steamworks Makes DRM Obsolete?
« on: March 25, 2009, 04:10 PM »
That's what they say:

March 24, 2009 - Valve today announced a new set of advanced features delivered in Steamworks, a complete suite of publishing and development tools that are available free of charge to developers and publishers worldwide.

Headlining the new feature set is the Custom Executable Generation (CEG) technology that compliments the already existing anti-piracy solution offered in Steamworks. A customer friendly approach to anti-piracy, CEG makes unique copies of games for each user allowing them to access the application on multiple machines without install limits and without having to install root kits on their PC.

The new features also include support for in-game downloadable content (DLC) and matchmaking. The in-game DLC support allows developers to deliver new content as they choose (paid or free) from inside the game itself, allowing users to make immediate purchases and experience the new content in the same game session. The Steamworks matchmaking now includes the robust lobby system shipped and tested in Left 4 Dead.
Read the rest here.

Probably one of the most important thing about this (for developers) is that Steamworks services are offered free to developers and publishers, so there's really no reason why developers should use invasive DRM to "protect" their games.

Thanks Valve/Steam, for coming up with solutions!

371
Living Room / Google monitors your electricity.
« on: February 10, 2009, 03:19 PM »
Google has been getting scarier and scarier as they stretch their tendrils into different markets. The latest announcement from Google is that they're getting into the Smart Grid technology.

Google will announce its entry Tuesday into the small but growing business of "smart grid," digital technologies that seek to both keep the electrical system on an even keel and reduce electrical energy consumption.

Google is one of a number of companies devising ways to control the demand for electric power as an alternative to building more power plants. The company has developed a free Web service called PowerMeter that consumers can use to track energy use in their house or business as it is consumed.

Google is counting on others to build devices to feed data into PowerMeter technology. While it hopes to begin introducing the service in the next few months, it has not yet lined up hardware manufacturers.

Personally, I'm starting to becoming concerned with what Google is becoming. Something like the Smart Grid sounds great in theory, but the access to when and where I run electronics in my house and the ability to selectively limit or shut off my electronics remotely is worrying. Combine that with Google's already massive data mining and data storage abilities, and things start to get interesting.

372
Mini-Reviews by Members / Game Review: Defense Grid: The Awakening
« on: February 03, 2009, 06:46 PM »
Hidden Path Entertainment's Defense Grid: The Awakening.

App NameDefense Grid: The Awakening
App URLhttp://defensegrid.hiddenpath.com/
Minimum/Recommended System Specs
Click to expand/shrink
The minimum system requirements for the game are the following:
Supported OS: Windows XP, Vista
Processor: 1.8GHz CPU or higher
Memory: 512 MB RAM
Hard disk space: 1 GB available space
DirectX version:  DirectX 9.0c or higher, June 2008 version or later
Video Card:  DirectX 9 video card with shader 2 support such as the following:
  ATI Radeon 9600 or newer (9600-9800,X300-X1950, HD 2400-HD 4870)
  NVIDIA GeForce 6100 or newer (6100-6800,7100-7950,8300-8800,9600-9800, or GTX 216-280)


Recommended System Requirements:
Processor: dual core 2.0 GHz CPU or higher
Memory: 1 GB RAM XP, 1.5 GB RAM Vista
Hard disk space: 1 GB available space
DirectX version:  DirectX 9.0c or higher, June 2008 version or later
Video Card: DirectX 9 video card with shader 3 support and 256MB VRAM such as the following:
  ATI Radeon X700 or newer (X700-X1950, HD 2400-HD 4870)
  NVIDIA GeForce 7600 or newer (7600-7950, 8300-8800, 9600-9800, or GTX 216-280)


Optionally: Supports Game Controller for Windows

Supported OSesWindows XP/Vista
Playable DemoDownload a playable demo from this list of mirrors.
Pricing Scheme$10 USD
Reviewer Donation LinkDonate to Deozaan, the Reviewer
VideosThere are a few HD videos to download, or here are some YouTube videos.
Full Disclosure I have no relationship with Hidden Path Entertainment and gain nothing from this review. I just love the game!


About the game:

Defense Grid: The Awakening is a high quality Tower Defense game created by Hidden Path Entertainment. My understanding of the story is that hundreds of years previously, a bunch of aliens attacked. After the aliens were (barely) defeated, the General who commanded the armies (or whatever) had his brain downloaded into a Defense Grid in case they ever attacked again. Well, now they are attacking again, and the Defense Grid awakens. That is, the Defense Grid is the AI that controls all aspects of the towers. Aiming, firing, building, upgrading, etc. You're just the guy who tells the Grid where to put stuff. The power cores provide electricity to the grid and that's why if they're all stolen, it's game over--because when they're gone, all the defenses power down.

The objective of the game, like all TD games, is to build defense towers along a path to prevent the aliens from reaching your base. Your "base" in this game is really the location of the power cores. It differs from most TD games I've played in that when the aliens actually reach the power cores and take them, they don't just disappear and the power core is not immediately lost forever*. Instead, the aliens have to make their escape with the power cores. This gives you a chance to recover them if you kill them before they escape. When an alien carrying a power core is killed, the power core slowly makes its way back to the base. But if any other aliens are nearby, they can pick it up wherever it is when they reach it and start running toward the exit.

* The exception is that if flying enemies reach the cores, the core(s) they take cannot be recovered even if you shoot them down.

Defense Grid.jpg

Defense Grid has a 20 level story mode that supposedly provides about 8 hours of game play. I'm on level 14 and I'm pretty sure I've been playing for more than 8 hours. But that might be because I'm a perfectionist and always revert back to the autosave (discussed later) if a power core is permanently lost. On top of the regular challenge of the story mode, once you complete a level it unlocks additional challenges for that map. Some challenges just make the aliens stronger, some limit the maximum number of towers you can use at a time, some give you a certain amount of money right from the beginning but don't allow you to earn any from killing enemies, and some levels even have a practice mode that gives you lots of money from the beginning but once again you don't earn anything from killing aliens.

Deep Strategy:

I know that mouser really enjoys TD games that allow you to place towers directly in the way of the enemies, allowing you to shape their path toward the power grid. Well, Defense Grid's levels do this and more. They have a lot of variety! Some levels only allow you to build along the sides of the path, some levels allow you to shape the enemies' path, some levels have the same entry and exit point, and others have separate entry and exit points. Also, no matter what level, flying enemies take a different path than ground enemies. These things add a great depth of strategy to the game.

For instance, if the aliens enter and exit from the same place, you have the benefit of all aliens passing by your towers twice. However, if an enemy carrying a power core gets killed, he drops it. Any alien without a power core will pick it up and start running for the exit. So with the same entry and exit point, you run the risk of the escapees getting too close to the new ones coming in when they get killed.

If the entrance and exit are in different locations, then you have to spread out your towers to cover the entrance and the exit. The upside is that if you manage to kill an alien just before he escapes, you won't have any incoming aliens to pick up the core and turn around and exit.

I even played a map with two power grids and two separate entry and exit points. The layout of the level was very close to symmetric, but the aliens that came down the paths were not always the same on each side. Along with the different enemies coming down each side, the minor differences in the path layout meant that different tower layouts for each side were more effective than going for a symmetric design.

The variety of towers also increases the strategy of the game greatly. Each tower seems to have a very specific purpose and they all seem very well balanced. This means that you won't always build the same one or two towers on every map because they're the most powerful and do the most damage.

Autosave:

Another unique thing about the game is that it will occasionally create an autosave about every 3-5 waves. If things really start to go downhill, you can resume from your previous autosave instead of having to start all the way from the beginning. Additionally, if you quit the game you can resume right from where you left off when you come back. There are some good and some bad things about these save features, which I will address below in the Good and the Needs Improvement section.

Interface:

The interface seems slightly odd at first, but once you get used to it, it is very simple and very efficient. Basically, the screen is always centered where your mouse is. If you left click on an empty grid, it brings up a window on the side. If you move your mouse up and down it will feel weird because you don't see your cursor so it appears to suddenly jump (snap) from one menu item to another. The better way to use the interface is to move the screen with the mouse, and use the scroll wheel to interact with the menu items. Left clicking selects something or confirms an action, right clicking on an enemy will show its health and stats or cancel an action.

Press T to toggle showing the entrance and exit points, the flyers path, and the range of your units. Press L to fire your Laser Beam of Death From Heaven. Press Backspace to go back to your previous autosave. Other than those three keyboard buttons, it's best just to use the mouse and scroll wheel for everything else.

Towers:

One thing about defense towers in this game is that the towers have line of sight. This means some towers are better suited for the front row and some are better suited for the back row. For example, towers with slower firing rates are better in back because by the time they're ready to fire again the aliens might be back in the line of sight. Meanwhile, the towers with the fastest firing rate should be in front so they can unload everything they have at them the entire time they are in range.

All towers in the game can be upgraded a maximum of two times (to level 3). Here's a brief overview of all towers, approximately in the order they become available to you. Note that some of the details might be wrong, as I'm doing this by memory.

Gun (machine gun): Fast fire, low damage weapon. Medium/Low Range. Hits Ground & Air. Upgrading increases damage and range. Good against enemies with shields. Least expensive tower in the game.

Inferno (flamethrower): Constant jet of flame that deals low damages all enemies within the cone of fire. Fire continues to burn enemies for a little while after they leave the flame. Low Range. Hits ground units only. Ineffective against shields. Upgrading increases damage and width of fire cone.

Laser: Constant laser beam attacks a single enemy within range. Continues to burn enemy for a while after it leaves the flame. Medium Range. Ground only. Ineffective against shields. Upgrading increases damage.

Temporal: Sends out a periodic pulse that slows down all enemies within range. Affects ground units only. Upgrading increases the range. This tower has a constant upgrade cost, which means it costs the same amount to upgrade as it does to build, which sometimes leaves you wondering if you'd be better off building two of them with a small range or upgrading one to have a larger range.

Meteor: Extremely slow, very high damage attacks. Splash damage affects nearby aliens. Very large range but cannot hit aliens that are too close. Hits ground units only. Upgrading increases damage and slightly increases rate of fire. You'll want one or two of these to take out the slow boss units.

Cannon: Slow firing, high damage weapon that hits a single enemy within range. Large range but cannot hit aliens that are too close. Hits ground and air units. Upgrading increases damage and adds another barrel. (Level 1 fires 1 shot, level 2 fires 2 shots, level 3 fires 3 shots.) Good against shielded aliens.

Missile: Fires missiles at air units only. If you can afford to fully upgrade one of these, it should be all you need to defend against air units.

Tesla: Zaps an enemy when it comes into range. These things work better when they have time to charge up between firings, so they're best near the end of the path where only the strongest would get to. Upgrading them allows them increases their charge up rate, gives them an extra level of charge, and allows the electric jolt to chain to additional enemies.

Concussion: Constant damage to all ground units within range. Starts out with very low damage but with a fully upgraded Concussion tower (and a Temporal tower nearby) in the right place, all but the toughest or fastest enemies won't make it past without taking significant damage.

Command: Reveals stealth aliens and increases money earned from aliens killed within range. Upgrading increases the range and the amount earned from aliens killed. This tower has a constant upgrade price.


Laser Beam of Death from Heaven: About halfway through the game you gain the ability to fire a beam down from above that totally obliterates any alien inside its large radius. It's kind of a panic button. It takes a very long time to recharge. Also, to discourage you for using it when four boss aliens come out at the same time, you do not get any money for aliens destroyed by the blast. It's not really a tower, so you can't upgrade it, but it is a useful weapon when you have no other means of stopping them from getting away with your power cores.

Defense Grid - Boss Info.jpg
Four big and slow bosses making their assault all at once.



The Good

  • In a genre flooded with 2D Flash games, Defense Grid's highly detailed 3D graphics are beautiful and add a lot of polish to the game!
  • Deep strategy due to different alien paths, variety of towers, variety of alien types, and level layout.
  • Towers are balanced very well. All towers can be put to a specific use.
  • Level layouts are interesting and fun.
  • Easy enough to survive with some cores lost, but can be quite challenging to make it through with all your cores intact. I say this is a good thing because it allows players of all skill levels to enjoy the game.
  • Additionally, if you find the story mode too easy, each level has at least one bonus challenge that makes the aliens stronger.
  • Autosave feature is really nice to go back in time just a few waves to see if you can try something with better results.


The Needs Improvement Section

  • Restoring an autosave can provide differing results. For instance, sometimes the game will autosave just a few seconds before one of my power cores is permanently lost. If I restore to the save, my towers might kill the alien before he gets away this time. That is, your towers won't always do the same thing even if you don't change anything.
  • This one is related but needs a bullet point of its own. One particular time when I restored to an autosave and when the screen faded back in, all of my towers came out of the ground as if they had all just been built. In other words, all the aliens on the screen got about 10 seconds of freebie time running past my towers because they were coming up out of the ground and not able to shoot at anything. I tried restoring from the save again but it always did the same thing. It was very frustrating and eventually I had to start that level over.

That is pretty much the only real complaint I have about the game.


Conclusions

This is hands-down the best TD game I've ever played. I've never spent this much time nor had this much fun playing a single TD game before. It's the only one I've ever liked enough to pay for. It's the best looking, has the most variety, the best features, the deepest strategy, and is the most engaging TD game I've experienced. It has a couple of flaws with the autosave feature that, depending on when and how they rear their ugly heads, can be devastating to the gameplay, but overall I would heartily recommend this game to anyone who enjoys Tower Defense games. $20 is a small price to pay for this gem, but if you don't believe me, try the demo out for yourself and see if it convinces you otherwise. It sure convinced me!

[UPDATE] Now that I've actually completed all 20 levels, I figured I should update the original review with my "final" conclusion:

I give this game a 50 out of 10! It completely exceeded my expectations in every way!

Seriously. If you've spent more than 30 minutes playing a TD game before, you absolutely must buy this game! I've spent nearly 20 hours on it so far and I have hardly even touched any of the extra content. This is well worth the price of admission.
[/UPDATE]


Links to other reviews of this game

Hidden Path Entertainment has collected it's own list of (and links to) game reviews by professional game review websites/magazines.

Other Screenshots
Defense Grid - Four Bosses.jpg
Defense Grid - Concussions.jpg

373
General Software Discussion / MOGware's FileHamster (Complaint)
« on: January 31, 2009, 04:46 PM »
It's been about a month since I did any coding on any projects I had set up with FileHamster to take care of revision history. Today I just started working on one and every time I save any file within the project FileHamster pops up a one second advertisement notification window.

Bad form, MOGware! Time to uninstall FileHamster.  :(

374
Post New Requests Here / IDEA: Auto Focus Grabber
« on: January 29, 2009, 11:55 PM »
My brother was just telling me one of those "You know what would be so cool?" ideas, and I thought that what he told me was perfect for a coding snack, so here goes.

He would like a utility that automatically gives focus to any window that the mouse is on top of. So in other words, whenever the mouse moves across the screen from one application to another, any application that is directly under the mouse should get focus.

375
General Software Discussion / RedHat Linux: Fedora 9
« on: January 23, 2009, 12:36 AM »
Okay, I'm another one of those life-long Windows users who doesn't know a lot about linux. I've accessed a few linux clusters using PuTTy a few times but other than that (and even including that) I don't really know what I'm doing when it comes to linux. I just started a new semester in school, working on my Computer Science degree, and for my programming class I'm going to be doing a lot of Java, working in a linux shell, and accessing a Linux cluster to submit my homework and test my programs, etc. If you are an experienced linux user, you will most likely be able to tell by my vocabulary that I really don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to linux vocabulary. I decided it was time to get linux installed on a computer of my own and thought I may as well use what my school is using.

So, I just purchased a netbook (MSI Wind U120-024US), and scancode was helpful enough to help me out with nLite and the HP USB Format tool to create a bootable USB drive so I can install Windows XP Pro SP3 on the thing, but I also want to dual boot with linux. The Wind won't arrive until sometime next week so I'm taking this time to prepare getting the software I want on it for installation. So, back to Fedora 9.

After navigating RedHat's website I found this mirror to download Fedora 9. And this is where I'm not sure what to do. It appears as though Fedora 9 uses 7 CDs to fully install (What the smurf is that about? Windows XP fits on a single CD!) but before I even get there, do I download the i386 version or the x86_64 version?

Once that question is answered, should I download all seven ISOs or just the NetInstall ISO or get a Live CD? Just keep in mind that netbooks (or at least the Wind I ordered) doesn't actually have an optical drive, so if I need to boot from CD I'm kind of smurfed unless I can get it to work on my 8GB or 512MB flash stick.

I suppose those are all the questions I have for now regarding which one to download. Also if any of you have personal experience with Fedora I'd especially appreciate your input on whether or not it's a good idea to go with that particular distro or if it's a pain in the neck. The one at school doesn't seem that difficult but then again, it's already been set up for me. I didn't have to mount filesystems or whatever to get it running first. It just boots into a windows-like GUI of some sort and I click the button for the shell from the Fedora equivalent of the quick launch bar.

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