CE Wills

    Hey, everyone. I hate to sound like an NFL official, but the new game called Razor, Salvation is even better than I initially thought. Everyone who is a fan of the shooter genre should run, not walk, to get it. Let me talk about this a moment.    You have the 3 maps, the upgrades, and just when you think that you're on a sweet run against Zombies type 1 and 2, new enemies appear.     The smaller robot insects (crawlers) can be killed fairly well with your rail gun. The flying drones are hard to hit but not terribly hard to dispose of. But then...here comes the !#** big insects, the Walkers. Their front legs are armored and seem impervious to my attacks. The rail gun doesn't seem effective. While you goof around with them, the other enemies overrun you.     I'm getting more in-game cash now and the developers seem to be generous with it, plus I'm learning which of my weapons are effective against which adversary. It is a blast...

    Hey again, everyone. This morning the new shooter game entitled Razor Salvation went live on the app store. I've played it for a few minutes and thought I'd give some first impressions.     It is evident that this game is meant to be massively multi-player, with the ability to organize your friends into 'factions' and compete. You can take part in groups for all major geographical areas. I.E. Australia, Europe, United States etc.     This game can also be played alone, which is my style. It is a sci-fi game, as you can see from the screenshot above. Your spacecraft has returned to Earth from a mission and aliens have decimated our civilization. In addition, there is a zombie plague going on and it is your duty to evacuate survivors. You can tell these folks because they are wearing C-Zone clothing, which is yellow.     While loading these good folks, you must kill numerous bad guys. These Xenos (aliens) include Grunts, ...

    Hey, everyone. Let me salute all those of any nation who have served in the military. When you raise your hand and swear in, you commit yourself to die, if necessary, for your country. As such a person, you deserve my respect. The politics that control the destinies of little people like ourselves may make us enemies on the battlefield, but we are not so very different. We love our families and ...want to make a living. If the stuffed shirts of the world would allow it, we would most likely get along. Nuff said.     I downloaded a freebie from the app store called Monster Shooter. It was 74 MB, not too huge a file, and it is a lot of fun. Let me say that this game does take the liberty of turning on your push notifications on your device, which I don't appreciate. After you download it and play it the first time, go to settings, notifications, notification center , then turn off the notifications for that game. At least I did, of course you can do as ...

   Hey, everyone. Notch 7 is published on Smashwords. Within the next day or so it should be on Amazon. It is a short story, about 8,000 words, and costs 99 cents. It will probably take about two weeks before it is available on Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Sony, Diesel and the other Smashwords affiliates, as it must go through Smashwords' vetting process.      In this addition to my western series, the gunman, Cedric Gant, rescues a lady from a raging river, only to find that her problems go far deeper than physical damage. Sometimes skill with a gun won't fix a problem. http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/166267     I hope the link works. Goodnight from the author's green retreat.      I'm CE Wills.

    Hey, everyone, out there in the world! Nice of you to stop by. Today I downloaded Men In Black 3 for I-Pad. There were a number of positive reviews on the app store, but there were several reviews that complained about the game failing to open. This was my experience. It opened to the screen shown above and froze there. At least it was free. I have an I-Pad 3, so maybe you will have better luck with yours.     EA games is having a big sale for the holiday weekend. I already have most of the titles which are on sale, however. I did buy several games this weekend, though, and I'd like to tell you about them.    Get Out of My Galaxy is a Mario type of space game in which you control a monster with 4 arms. The dude eats rocks and has a penchant for slapping little cone-headed aliens. There are a certain number of aliens to slap on every planet, then you move on to the next world. There are power-ups to grab as you go along, for health and other...

    Good evening, everyone.  Tonight we watched a movie on satellite called Original Sin , starring Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie. These are two of my favorite stars and I assure you that each was at the top of their game in this rather odd flick. I must relate to you that the story itself seemed to drag in spots but this was not the fault of the leading characters. Here is the recipe.     Antonio Banderas plays a wealthy Cuban, the owner of a lucrative coffee plantation. He has a fine estate, a factory, fields and servants out the wazoo. He has the added burden of being young and handsome. He does an odd thing. He sends to America for a mail order bride. No, that is not quite the right term. He enlists a lady from the want ads to marry him. The lady is supposed to be a rather plain looking girl by the name of Julia Russell. When the planter meets her boat he thinks that he has hit the jackpot...with Angelina Jolie.      The...

    Hey, everyone. I finished Notch 7 last night, in the wee hours. Of course, I still have to type it, proof it, send it to Smashwords and Amazon etc. Still, I have found time to play a new game which I bought for 99 cents. It is the above -mentioned Cubis Creatures and it is a good game. You can actually get a free version of this game but I was flush with cash on this particular day so I sprang for the 99 cent version. Ha, ha.     When I get aggravated with the shooters, on which I get stuck, I like to play puzzle games and this is one of the better ones. That said, it has a Biology class feel to it because it looks as though you are performing surgery on a furry creature who has the misfortune to be infested with brightly colored cubes. But hey, my Granny kept her kidney stones on the mantel in a jelly jar, so I can deal with this.     Here's the recipe. There are 80 levels, with more puzzle packs available. There is a grid inside the ...

    Hey, everyone. Another weekend is upon us. Am I partying? Am I wining and dining in the world's hotspots? Am I in pursuit of attractive women or pulse-pounding action? No, not so much. I haven't felt well today. I was very tired from a difficult week and was agreeable to doing the elderly guy things. I did a few chores around the house, complained to my internet provider over the phone and had a nice quiet evening with Carley. She had fixed some meatballs and spaghetti, salad and rolls. I ate a nice meal and had some red wine with it. Then we watched TV for a while.      You may recall that I wrote a review, several months ago, of a flick called Unknown , starring Liam Neeson. I re-watched it tonight. It is a show which is very slow for 80% of the time, then burns your brain with action and suspense in the final minutes. I enjoyed it more the second time around, actually.      Oh, all you folks in the ether who are wondering about ...

    Hey, everyone. One of my earliest childhood memories were those times when we traveled to my aunt's house. She was the sweetest lady. She and her husband were quite old and had a small home that sat on a hill. Since they were retired, they had the time to keep their yard up beautifully. There were loads of bushes and flowers, and best of all, fruit trees. My aunt would pick fruit for me and we'd sit on the porch and she'd teach me about things. "That's an apple tree," and so on.     The front porch was very high off the ground and overlooked a highway. We would watch cars go by and my uncle would say, "Chevrolet" or "Ford". He was not a great conversationalist.     The reason I bring this up is because I was just sitting on my front porch and noticed that I had painted it green, just like my aunt's. It is also 8 feet wide, so that the rain can't reach the swing, just like my aunt's.      I wonder if, sub-consciously...

    Hey, everyone, out there in the ether. The other day I mentioned several games I had downloaded. I want to review one of those free games. For those of you who are new to IOS gaming, this game uses the 'fremium' model, in which you get the game for free and they make their money when you buy in-app purchases. This system is good, in that you can at least try before you buy, and bad in that you often have to buy weapons or credits or coins in order to advance very far. But I digress from the game review, so here is the recipe.     This is a sword and magic type of game. You pick from several characters that you want to use as your avatar. You fight a series of weird creatures, including one with mushrooms growing out of his back. In order to advance, you must defeat each monster in turn-based combat. In other words, you take a whack at him, then he gets to take a whack at you. Sounds like that deal in high school where guys "swap licks". For some reason...

     Hey, everyone. Happy Mother's Day to all you ladies out there. You certainly deserve a day to be lauded and appreciated. If there is any among you in search of a good book, may I make a suggestion? Try a book called Night of the Assassin , by Russell Blake.      This is a book about Mexico, by an author who lives in Mexico. It is fast-paced, action packed and well written. I highly recommend it, although it is more of a guy book than a woman's book. Gee, I guess that sounded a little chauvinistic.      This is the story of a hit-man. He is called El Rey, the King of Swords. His calling card is actually a playing card. When he kills, El Rey leaves a face card at the scene of the crime, usually stuffed into the victim's mouth. His story begins with a contract that he undertakes to kill a drug czar by the name of Papi Contreras. The hit turns out to be more difficult than normal and El Rey barely escapes intact. But that is...

    Hey, everyone. I finally got some problems corrected with internet issues today. Consequently, I was able to sit and browse the web on my I-Padster this evening. After a couple of weeks of not being able to frequent my favorite haunts like App Shopper, Flipboard, Touch Arcade, 148 Apps and others, I went overboard and downloaded numerous games, most of them free. 1) Carley said to mention one for the puzzlers, so here it is. Free for today and Sunday only. Awakening, the Dreamless Castle. This is a hidden object game but it also has numerous side puzzles. I can tell she likes it because she talked to the game as she played all evening. Nuff said. 2) Braveheart. I haven't had time to play it, but get it while it's free. 3) Mech Guardian. Likewise, I haven't played it. Free. 4) Army vs. Zombie. I actually played a bit of this one. It has nice graphics. There are elements of the tower defense genre and it is certainly worth a look for free. 5) Wolfenstein 3D Platin...

    Hey, everyone. Nice to see you. It is now quite late on a Thursday night, Friday morning. I bought N.O.V.A. 3 , the space shooter, when it came out on Wednesday night. The graphics are awesome and the gameplay is fun. Let me quickly make one negative point. There should be an easy mode that is truly easy, so you could enjoy playing and making progress. Also, if I wanted a puzzle game, I'd buy a puzzle game. It took me a while tonight to figure out a way to escape from a building that I had been fighting in. What they wanted me to do was this: they wanted me to jump on a sofa and bounce over the sofa to exit an area, rather than get electrocuted by live electrical lines hanging from the ceiling.     Let me also say that this game is a huge 1.57 Gigs. Over a year ago, I opined on these pages that new games with astounding graphics and play, plus new I-Pads with marvelous technology, would drive each other's sales. Well, I called it, I must say.  ...

    Hey, everyone. It's a rainy day, here at the green retreat. I like rainy days. They are good for web surfing, naps and sitting on the porch swing. You can read a book or play the keyboard.      I was just at the keyboard, from which I can see through a double window. I was playing a bunch of songs and chanced on one called The Green, Green Grass of Home . It was written, long ago, by Curley Putnam and it has been performed by hundreds of entertainers. I can play it pretty well and I enjoy doing so.      This song tells the story of a man reminiscing about the old home place; about his parents and his lover. He dreams of going home and how "the old home town looks the same, as I step down from the train. And there to meet me are my Momma and my Papa." Then he say's, "Down the road I look and there runs Mary. Hair of gold and lips like cherries. It's good to touch the green green grass of home."      This ...

   Hey, everyone. Tonight I played Infinity Blade 2 for a couple of hours. I am really enjoying it for the most part. I felt that I would share a few thoughts on the game, even though I previously reviewed it. 1) The Rebirth Thing. What an odd feature! For those who haven't played this game, let me explain. You experience rebirths regularly. I am now on my 5th one. It works like this. You approach a castle. You battle 4 or 5 monsters to reach the big kahuna monster (boss) of the place. If you kill him or not, you wake up in a crypt and start over again, outside the castle. Oh, sure, you still have your upgraded weapons, armor, magic ring, helm, shield etc. Sure, this time through you fight different foes, in different areas of the keep. Yet it seems mildly repetitive. Your goal is to free the sleeper, and perhaps I'll get there, by and by. Incidentally you keep your hard-earned gold when you re-awaken. Which brings us to another observation. 2) Take your time before each ...

   Hey, everyone! Today I want to talk about Boring Bees. I don't mean to imply that they are not interesting or unable to make for an interesting conversation. They are known for drilling holes in wood. The holes they drill are as round and smooth as a bullet hole. Since my place here is made of 1 inch thick slabs of oak, rough-cut on an old saw mill by myself, my sons and an elderly minister, the boring bees love it here.      These bees are commonly referred to as Carpenter Bees. They are also referred to as a lot of words that I can't say on a "G" rated blog. People hate them because they are real pests. They leave piles of sawdust on your deck. They reward you for giving them a place to live and a free meal by placing excrement on the side of your house. I suppose their diet, being high in fiber, causes this.      The government, in their wisdom, outlawed the one chemical that proved effective against them. Some say that you can wait...

    Hey, everyone. Today I disguised myself as mild-mannered writer, CE Wills, and went to see the Avengers movie. Even superheroes like myself, the Mighty Thor, like to see themselves on the big screen. Is that Tony Stark a wild and crazy guy, or what?    The movie was a prodigious 2 hours and twenty minutes and it was fun to try to pick out the members of the audience who might suffer from hemorrhoids. The movie was good enough so that no one seemed to mind the time.     I went to the noon show and even it was packed out. If you are having trouble finding anyone, odds are good that they are at this movie. It is liable to break all records.     The evil Loki has teamed up with some evil aliens to attack the Earth and they opened a portal through time and space with a glowing blue cube. S.H.I.E.L.D called out the Avengers to save the day and the battle was on. The villians had every advantage, but as Iron Man said, "We have the H...

    Hey,everyone, out there in the ether. All of you nameless, faceless beings who read my words, probably out of boredom. Today I want to talk about Thor, Son of Asgard .     I have eyeballed this game for months and started to buy it many times. Even though it was relatively cheap, I refrained, due to bad reviews and the general look of the screen shots.    Recently, they dropped the price to 99 cents (From $2.99) and I swooped in and bought it. To my surprise the game has been a real hoot. (Fun). Here's the recipe.    You play as the Mighty Thor. Thor returns to Asgard only to find that fabled land under siege. Like everyone else, Thor has some kin folk he doesn't like and Loki, his brother, is the worst. Loki has been plotting against Asgard  and Thor's papa, Odin. Loki has arranged for the realm to be overrun with trolls and other unsavory creatures.    More importantly, from a 'guy' standpoint, Thor's woman, Si...

   Hey, everyone. I am still learning to use Blogger's new system so bear with me on any glitches to the blog.    I recently downloaded a free book from Amazon by a guy named R.S. Nolte. As you might suspect from the title of the post, the book is Assignment: Kowloon Hotel. It is normally $4.95 for the ebook. I got it during a promotion which I noticed on my I-Pad app called Flipboard. Let me mention that Flipboard is an excellent news feeder for I-Pad. One of the things I selected for a feed was a source called Kindle Free Books . Being an egomaniac, I also have my own blog on there. This is convenient if I have to check something from a past post. But, back to the book.      I have never read one of Mr. Nolte's novels before, but I think I have found a new writer. This guy doesn't waste a lot of motion but has a fast-paced, action based style which is similar to my own. I would rate the book a 4 star out of 5.     The hero is a...