Well, Arch Enemy's got a new singer, the previous singer from the band "The Agonist". Apparently Angela Gossow
had enough and moved on. Well, they scored the motherload. Alissa White-Gluz is even hotter and still brings
the hellfury with her death metal vocals. This album "War Eternal" sounds highly promising. Cha-ching. Sold!
You're a hacker; the elite, hired to go in, running and acquiring whatever programs you need, steal the data and any bank info,
and bail out, signal integrity intact. Well... Good luck with all that! If only it were that easy...
868-HACK is an iOS game based off a kickass original freeware game titled "86856527". What's even more
astounding about it is it was originally completed in just 7 days during a one-week rogue-like game jam.
Superbly Cyberpunk in it's design aesthetic. At first, the game seems impossible. It is, afterall, a rogue-
like. You're meant to die over and over again until you grok how the game systems work and exploit them
perfectly. Then, after a few addictive plays, you start to grasp what's being asked of you and start
getting strategic about your moves. Then, you make a few runs where you're a hair's breath away from the end.
At least, this is my personal experience with it.
It's a great coffee-break game. A full game lasts maybe 10-15 minutes. There's no side-quests. There's no
fluff, no bullshit. It's just you against the system. Hacking your way into whatever megacorp to "stick it to the man".
The game plays as a turn-based strategy game. You move one grid location at a time, run any software you want,
examine your options, and the enemies make their move. You encounter all manner of obstacle; the hellbent
software out to do you in. Daemons, Viruses (oh gawd, the fucking viruses!!! Anti-Virus to the rescue!),
Hidden files, Glitches (which don't obey the normal rules of software). It seems on the surface to be such a
simple game, but boy is that an illusion. The depth is in the intricate subtlety. Every move counts. A single turn
can make the difference of a run to the very end, or an instant death. The game is that delicately balanced.
It all dances on a razor's edge.
And, it's awesome. Living Tron. Good proper cyberpunk flare meets rogue-like gameplay. Good for kicking around for a few minutes,
with no big commitments. If you're anything like me though, it'll become an obsession. Your eyes close to sleep
and all you see is green lines, the soft glow of the gamegrid, and another rabid Cryptog bearing down on you!! Gaaahhhhh!
