Featured Office Time Waster: Aqua Turret
Looking for a simple point and shoot game that will have you on the edge of your seat on this wonderful day of Friday? I say wonderful simply because it is Friday, the day when work no longer matters and dreaming about the weekend does. The game I present to you this week is called Aqua Turret and goes something like this: you are a gun turret in the middle of the ocean and you have to protect yourself from waves of enemy battleships, and you do so by destroying them with your powerful and pretty cool weapons.
Why did I choose this game? Well, in the game you have to focus and make every shot count; also, you have to upgrade your weapons from time to time so that your enemies do not overwhelm you. The same could be applied for this week’s news. If you want to focus on your task at hand, you could use Ghoster to blur out inactive windows, Magic Glass and Dragnifier to zoom in on images, and software to block annoying adds in Firefox and Google Chrome. Speaking of Firefox, you could also try Invert Colors to play around with the visual appearance of some sites, SiteLauncher to more easily launch web pages, and you could even help Mozilla improve their existing software programs with Test Pilot.
Keeping with the focus theme, sometimes it is hard to stay concentrated on whatever you are sniping for, but luckily there is an iPod touch app called BulletFlight that will help you become a more efficient sniper. On a more peaceful note, the USB memory stick you carry with you all day can be quite a hassle, so here are some software applications that will help you not lose it and not get it infected.
Moving on to software security, Lavasoft is boasting about its decade of activity and to celebrate it has released a new version of their popular security solution, Ad-Aware Anniversary Edition (or Ad-Aware 2009 as I like to call it). Kaspersky is focusing on Windows 7 and has released a technical preview of Kaspersky for Windows 7 , Yahoo! is beefing up their mail spam protection , Apple QuickTime 7.6 now features enhanced security, and McAfee has issued the threat predictions for 2009.
Getting back to Aqua Turret, the game play is pretty simple – just point and shoot – so let’s focus on the weapons and some of the enemy units. The weapons in the game will be activated gradually, in 5 tiers. As you would expect, each tier brings more powerful weapons to the table.
Tier 1
Cannon – launches one bomb, power 200.
Machine gun – fires 25 projectiles, power 20, decent range but lousy with small watercrafts as they fit right in between the two streams of bullets.
You should not have a problem reaching lvl 5 without upgrading these weapons. Money will not exactly be a problem in this game, but this does not mean you should squander it so early on (keep in mind that there are at least 20 levels).
Tier 2
Rocket – fires one missile, power 400.
Heavy machine gun – fires 25 projectiles, power 30, looks like a mini-gun but does not bring a significant increase in fire rate. It would be best to do all the clicking yourself rather than keeping your finger pressed on the left mouse button.
Tier 3
Pulsar – launches one energy projectile which on impact creates lightning storm-like effect, power 600, immobilizes lager units such as aircraft carriers for a period of time. Note that hitting the aircraft once it is in launch position will not have any impact on the air strike, so make sure to hit it before that.
Heat seeker – launches two guided missiles, power 250, will do wonders for your accuracy because you do not have to actually aim, just point the turret in the right direction and shoot. Takes a long time to recharge, but luckily you have the pulsar, so all in all it is a pretty decent combination.
Tier 4
Cluster bomb – fires one rocket that upon impact splits into four smaller rockets, power 1600.
Blaze – launches a stream of flames at the enemy much in the same way a flame thrower would, power 600. Does not have a big range but it is very effective in close combat.
Tier 5
Mini nuke – as the name suggests launches a mini nuclear device which on impact creates a hurricane-like effect, power 4800.
Laser – activates a beam of laser (keep the left mouse button pressed for it to remain activated), power 1200.
Bonuses will be given to you if you achieve high accuracy rates. Choose between: request an air assault, activate protective shields for 20 seconds, disable all enemies, and restore your turret once.
Submarines – watch out for these sly units as they will circle around you and surface when you expect them the least. Well, not exactly! They might give you some anxiety at first, but after a while you will be able to predict exactly when they will surface.
Aircraft carriers – come up close and personal and launch an air strike; the airplane will continue to drop bombs on you until you destroy the carrier. They do make for an easy target, but they have loads of hit points.
After achieving a high score, you might want to brag about it to your friends, so you must know that it is now possible to preview videos directly in Gmail Chat. You might also want to go get something to drink for free, so here’s how.
If you would like to play Aqua Turret, please click here.
Why did I choose this game? Well, in the game you have to focus and make every shot count; also, you have to upgrade your weapons from time to time so that your enemies do not overwhelm you. The same could be applied for this week’s news. If you want to focus on your task at hand, you could use Ghoster to blur out inactive windows, Magic Glass and Dragnifier to zoom in on images, and software to block annoying adds in Firefox and Google Chrome. Speaking of Firefox, you could also try Invert Colors to play around with the visual appearance of some sites, SiteLauncher to more easily launch web pages, and you could even help Mozilla improve their existing software programs with Test Pilot.
Keeping with the focus theme, sometimes it is hard to stay concentrated on whatever you are sniping for, but luckily there is an iPod touch app called BulletFlight that will help you become a more efficient sniper. On a more peaceful note, the USB memory stick you carry with you all day can be quite a hassle, so here are some software applications that will help you not lose it and not get it infected.
Moving on to software security, Lavasoft is boasting about its decade of activity and to celebrate it has released a new version of their popular security solution, Ad-Aware Anniversary Edition (or Ad-Aware 2009 as I like to call it). Kaspersky is focusing on Windows 7 and has released a technical preview of Kaspersky for Windows 7 , Yahoo! is beefing up their mail spam protection , Apple QuickTime 7.6 now features enhanced security, and McAfee has issued the threat predictions for 2009.
Getting back to Aqua Turret, the game play is pretty simple – just point and shoot – so let’s focus on the weapons and some of the enemy units. The weapons in the game will be activated gradually, in 5 tiers. As you would expect, each tier brings more powerful weapons to the table.
Tier 1
Cannon – launches one bomb, power 200.
Machine gun – fires 25 projectiles, power 20, decent range but lousy with small watercrafts as they fit right in between the two streams of bullets.
You should not have a problem reaching lvl 5 without upgrading these weapons. Money will not exactly be a problem in this game, but this does not mean you should squander it so early on (keep in mind that there are at least 20 levels).
Tier 2
Rocket – fires one missile, power 400.
Heavy machine gun – fires 25 projectiles, power 30, looks like a mini-gun but does not bring a significant increase in fire rate. It would be best to do all the clicking yourself rather than keeping your finger pressed on the left mouse button.
Tier 3
Pulsar – launches one energy projectile which on impact creates lightning storm-like effect, power 600, immobilizes lager units such as aircraft carriers for a period of time. Note that hitting the aircraft once it is in launch position will not have any impact on the air strike, so make sure to hit it before that.
Heat seeker – launches two guided missiles, power 250, will do wonders for your accuracy because you do not have to actually aim, just point the turret in the right direction and shoot. Takes a long time to recharge, but luckily you have the pulsar, so all in all it is a pretty decent combination.
Tier 4
Cluster bomb – fires one rocket that upon impact splits into four smaller rockets, power 1600.
Blaze – launches a stream of flames at the enemy much in the same way a flame thrower would, power 600. Does not have a big range but it is very effective in close combat.
Tier 5
Mini nuke – as the name suggests launches a mini nuclear device which on impact creates a hurricane-like effect, power 4800.
Laser – activates a beam of laser (keep the left mouse button pressed for it to remain activated), power 1200.
Bonuses will be given to you if you achieve high accuracy rates. Choose between: request an air assault, activate protective shields for 20 seconds, disable all enemies, and restore your turret once.
Submarines – watch out for these sly units as they will circle around you and surface when you expect them the least. Well, not exactly! They might give you some anxiety at first, but after a while you will be able to predict exactly when they will surface.
Aircraft carriers – come up close and personal and launch an air strike; the airplane will continue to drop bombs on you until you destroy the carrier. They do make for an easy target, but they have loads of hit points.
After achieving a high score, you might want to brag about it to your friends, so you must know that it is now possible to preview videos directly in Gmail Chat. You might also want to go get something to drink for free, so here’s how.
If you would like to play Aqua Turret, please click here.
