Riven Part II

Riven is one of the best and most captivating games I played in a very long time. It guides you (often in a very cryptic way) through amazing quests in weird environments. It makes you think and wonder what to do next and how to do it. The second part of my play-through was in line with my experience of the first part. It was still cryptic and still very fascinating. 

The way the game forces you to choose how the story is going to end is compelling and it makes things unpredictable and exciting to someone, like me, who’s new to Riven. 

Don’t worry, I won’t spoil anything here. 

If you liked the first Myst, give Riven a try, you’ll have a great time. 

Make Your Slow Nexus 5x Faster

My Nexus 5x recently became so slow that I decided to look online for a quick way to make things a little bit faster. I found a quick fix that seems to do the trick up to now.

1. Go to Settings / System
2. Go to Developer options, and switch OpenGL Renderer to from OpenGL(Default) to OpenGL(Skia)
3. Reboot your phone

It made most lags and slowdowns go away at once. Good deal!

2010: Odyssey Two

The next logical step after reading 2001 was to dive right into its direct sequel, 2010: Odyssey Two. I read that one once in the past when I was still in high-school so I still remembered big chunks of it, but to my great surprise, not as much as I thought. I forgot most of the second half of the story for some reason. I’m somehow glad I forgot that much, as it unexpectedly allowed me to pretty much enjoy it a second time, something that doesn’t happen often.

2010 is very similar to 2001 in terms of overall pace and story depth, although there’s much more action and stuff going on this time. That’s probably why I preferred it to 2001 back when I was a kid. Many of the unanswered questions from the first installment are tackled again in some form or another, some of which are partially answered. The mystery around the monolith remains mostly intact, or perhaps gets even bigger, as, by the end, we’re given a neat idea of what it’s capable of.

2010 is just as good as 2001. It does indeed have some elements to its story that might be even more compelling than what we can find in 2001… But nothing makes me put it before or after the original. It’s definitely on par with its 1968 counterpart. A great read!

eXplorminate: All That Glitters Is Not Gold

A lot of 4X strategy games released in the past couple of years had some major shortcomings at release... Why?

Fellow 4X gamer Oliver "Mezmorki" Kiley from Explorminate shares what kind of issues have been plaguing most 4X strategy titles released in the past 5 years.  He pretty much hits the nail right on the head for the most part.

Here's a quick teaser before you dive into the whole article.

With the release of Endless Space 2 (ES2), a wave in the space 4X ocean has crested. The “Big 4” space 4X games –  Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars (MoO:CTS), Galactic Civilizations III (GalCiv3), Stellaris and ES2 – have all landed within the past year along with major expansions for GalCiv3 and Stellaris amidst a host of other titles.

And yet I can’t help but feel let down by the collective state of 4X gaming – specifically the prolific bugs and unrefined mechanical systems – especially considering that the above games were released by major, established developers. What began as an era of unprecedented promise and excitement has given way to the malaise of an after party hangover.

Example #1: Development of MoO:CTS appears to have stalled shortly after release with the game failing to have a lasting appeal among the core 4X audience. Will we get any additional content? Probably not. Example #2: GalCiv3 was a buggy mess that under-delivered compared to the highly touted and respected Galactic Civilizations II. Example #3: Stellaris, the innovative darling has just recently, at the one-year mark started to feel polished – but it too has been plagued by bugs and mechanical systems that remain lackluster. Example # 4: ES2 was released as an unpolished beta – and despite the preview build being solid, the release version was riddled with new bugs and plenty of balance issues remain.

So what happened? 

Read the full article on eXplorminate: All That Glitters Is Not Gold - eXplorminate

How To Handle Troublemakers On Your Forum

Running a community has its downsides. One of them is that it requires moderation. During your journey toward success, you'll encounter a ton of great people, but also some trouble makers who want to harm your community. Since such bad individuals are a true poison to online communities like yours, let's see what are the best ways to handle them (get rid of them!) effectively.

Just to make it clear, we won't be talking about light moderation or how to ask someone to calm down a bit. We're talking giant trolls, serial posers and sock puppets. Brace yourselves!!