Reviews

Moodle 1.9: E-Learning Course Development (William H. Rice IV)
PACKT Publishing (www.packtpub.com)
ISBN 978-1-847193-53-7

This book is a comprehensive guide to Moodle 1.9, covering everything from installing Moodle and creating courses through to in-depth explanations of how Moodle works under the surface. One thing I enjoyed about this book is that it’s not just a collection of step-by-step guides, but it gives detailed information so you understand why you are doing it.

Blender 3D 2.49 – Incredible Machines (Allan Brito)
PACKT Publishing (www.packtpub.com)
ISBN 978-1-847197-46-7

As you may have read, I was asked to review a new book from Packt on Blender 3D. Blender is an open source 3D modeling application and can be put to an amazing variety of uses, from lifelike images through to Pixar style 3D animation.

This book aims to cover the use of Blender in creating “Incredible Machines” which are described by the author, Allan Brito, as “a kind of machine that doesn’t exist in our world, has amazing capabilities, and has a great sci-fi look”. If you aren’t a sci-fi fan don’t be put off by the description, this book has a lot to offer away from the world of Spaceships and Robots.

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I was recently asked by Packt (www.packtpub.com) if I wanted to review their new book Blender 3D 2.49 – Incredible Machines (Allan Brito) when it gets published. While I’m waiting for the book they have sent me a sample chapter to put up for download on my blog so if you’re interested you can download a pdf of the chapter “Steampunk Spacecraft” here.

First let me note that I haven’t played this game with multiplayer yet so I can’t comment on that.

However this game is pretty good just with the single player campaign. The basic premise is that you’re a group of soldiers gone AWOL trying to chase down a load of trucks containing gold.

Along the way you get to handle trucks, armoured cars, patrol boats, tanks and even the occasional helicopter while you literally blow away the enemy.

This game is the best racing game so far on the PS3, not because of the physics of the game (the GT series are top for that) but because it’s really fun to play.

The graphics are fantastic, damage is semi-realistic and the number of different racing styles that you can play is huge.

The crashes are pretty good too, not just when you crash but when another AI car makes a mistake and causes a five car pile up which you juuuusst manage to avoid adding to.

This game is supposed to be like the Bourne movies, always on the run and always moving forward.

However the way that the game achieves this is to get a group of mini-games and string them together.

For example, you may be running down a corridor, turn a corner and run smack into a security guard… prompt the ‘fight’ mini game which is basically press block, wait for them to attempt to hit you and then mash triangle and square until Bourne does the coup de grace on the opponent.

You’ll then run off, go through a door and enter and ‘press the button on the screen God of War style’ mini game.

This is annoying because you never feel that you’re in charge of where the game is going, it feels like a 3D platformer.

Compared to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, King Kong is believable and Meet the Spartans would be considered a serious movie.

I’ve never enjoyed a car racing game this much since Need For Speed: Most Wanted.

I preordered Assassin’s Creed a month before it came out and my expectations of the game were not disappointed.

The detail in the maps are incredible and the ability to climb pretty much everything will have you roaming the cities for hours on end.

However, if you try to get through the storyline fast (it’s very tempting as the plot is fascinating) you will find some of the info gathering missions repetitive. This won’t effect you too much as unless you try to do all of them they won’t take too long.

Overall it’s a well thought through game with amazing attention to detail and the graphics and locations are breathtaking. The rumors of freezes on the PS3 are not as bad as is made out (I had it freeze about 3 times total) and Ubisoft have released a patch for it which seems to have fixed the problem.

9/10

Finished Bladestorm last week.

It starts off well (a particularly amazing opening movie) and the rpg element is ok but it drags on and is reeeaaallly repetitive. The ending scene is disappointing as well.

6.5/10