Watermelon and Avocado Cream

 

Preparation time: 2 hours

Cooking time: 0 minutes

Servings: 4

 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups coconut cream

• 1 watermelon, peeled and chopped

• 2 avocados, peeled, pitted and chopped

• 1 tablespoon honey

• 2 teaspoons lemon juice

 

Directions:

1. In a blender, combine the watermelon with the cream and the other ingredients, pulse well, divide into bowls and keep in the fridge for 2 hours before serving.

 

Nutrition: calories 121, fat 2, fiber 2, carbs 6, protein 5

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Ginger Baked Apples

 

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Servings: 4

 

Ingredients:

• 2 apples, cored and halved

• 1 tablespoon ginger, grated

• 1 tablespoon turmeric powder

• ¼ cup raw honey

• 1 tablespoon ginger, grated

 

Directions:

1. Arrange the apples in a baking dish, add the ginger and the other ingredients, and bake at 390 degrees F for 30 minutes.

2. Divide the apples mix between dessert plates and serve.

 

Nutrition: calories 90, fat 2, fiber 1, carbs 2, protein 5

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Orange Salad

 

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 0 minutes

Servings: 6

 

Ingredients:

• 3 oranges, peeled and cut into segments

• 1 avocado, peeled, pitted and cubed

• 3 tablespoons raw honey

• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 teaspoon orange zest, grated

 

Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine the oranges with the avocado and the other ingredients, toss and serve.

 

Nutrition: calories 211, fat 3, fiber 4, carbs 8, protein 7

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World War Z REVIEW

 World War Z is a competent but basic shooter that seems designed to foster those sorts of memorable moments, and that is surely its greatest strength. It’s a good venue for a group of four friends to get together, topple massive zombie hordes, maybe save a few survivors here and there, and laugh about it when the results roll in. There’s nothing revolutionary or even that remarkable about World War Z, but the formula it follows is proven to be fun.

Comparisons between World War Z and the Left 4 Dead series are more than justified – unavoidable, even, as Valve’s decade-old series is still revered today for its fast-paced action and ability to throw dozens of raving zombies at you at once. Ever since, there’s been a certain set of guidelines one looks for when dealing with co-op zombie shooter games. World War Z neatly checks every box on that list while upping the amount of zombies that can be on screen at a time considerably.

ts 11 linear gauntlet missions involve completing a series of easy to understand tasks – barricading a safe house, planting explosives, etc – that effectively promote teamwork and communication, especially during jam-packed zombie attacks. Weapons, ammunition, healing items, and heavy gear are scattered about its levels, especially as rewards for those who take the initiative to explore off the beaten path.

It was a lot of fun, but even so, it’s rare to see World War Z go beyond the roots of its very clear inspiration like this. Tasks like setting up timed bombs in an abandoned warehouse to trap an incoming horde or protecting a scientist as zombies invade a small home are simple enough to keep things reasonably interesting, but they’ve all been done to death already.

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RAGE 2 REVIEW

Rage 2 picks up the story of the 2011 original, brushes off seven years of accumulated dust, and declares it still good under the Five-Second Rule. You definitely don’t need to have played Rage to understand the simple concept of a future Earth where an asteroid impact destroyed just about everything that wasn’t sheltered underground in Arks, which are basically Fallout’s vaults (without the sadistic experiments). Now Mad Max-style raiders run rampant and a techno-fascist group called The Authority is trying to kill or subjugate everything in sight – the connections to the events of Rage are thin and distant enough that Rage 2 is effectively a soft reboot.

The opening moments have a fun Duke Nukem/Bulletstorm action movie parody vibe to them, including one hilarious gag immediately after you select your character’s gender. It even goes so far as to name that character – who carries the title of Ranger – “Walker.” But it’s wildly inconsistent with that comedic tone and also tries to shoehorn in some emotional weight by introducing and immediately killing a mentor character. Every time that’s brought up it feels out of place next to all the gung-ho heroics. I wish they’d fully embraced the madcap fun with the same enthusiasm that Borderlands did with its sequel.

Throughout the course of the story there’s nothing really approaching character development for anybody, no decisions are made, and of the handful of allies you meet only the returning Doctor Kvasir stands out as remotely memorable, thanks in large part to his creepy demeanor and really gross sidekick. The original Rage’s General Cross also returns – in person this time – as a blandly evil tyrant who believes that “humanity has run its course” and should be replaced by his brand of cybernetic mutants. He doesn’t make any argument for this philosophy, so it comes off as evil for evil’s sake and makes sure Cross never becomes anything more than a cartoon villain.

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Mordhau REVIEW

Mordhau’s flagship mode. It’s a 64-player team-based battle in which you progressively capture control points on large maps, pushing the enemy back to their spawn. The scale and variety of these maps is impressive: each has a distinct look, from the white hills of Mountain Peak—the blood glistening on the snow has a certain morbid beauty—to the muddy battlefield of Camp, the largest map. My favourite among the four is Grad, in which one team spawns in a walled keep and the other in a wood across a field. Between them are towers with spiral staircases, ladders, log huts, stacks of hay and a lumber mill, each offering different tactical options.

Most of Mordhau’s modes are team-based frays, but its one-on-one duel servers best expose the brilliance of its medieval melee combat system. You can stab, you can strike from different angles by flicking your mouse, you can feint, “morph” from one type of attack to the other mid-swing, or “chamber” an opponent’s attack by matching the angle of their blade for an instant counter.

It’s initially overwhelming. I learned the mouse movements in an afternoon, but knowing when to use each move took me far longer, and I spent my first five hours dying repeatedly. During that time I wished Mordhau had a more in-depth tutorial so I could learn by playing instead of turning to YouTube guides.

However, once I’d realised the importance of holding my nerve against an enemy’s feints I started to improve quickly, learning from my mistakes in each duel and turning tricks that had once worked on me back on my opponents (as demonstrated above).

That feeling of constant skill progression keeps me coming back. Nearly 30 hours in, I’m still picking up new combos of feints and morphs, and I’ve spent whole evenings fighting opponents in the same duel server without getting bored.

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Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled REVIEW

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled instantly transports me back to 1999 and the early 2000s with its familiar tracks, cartoonishly bright colors, and ridiculous plot of stopping Nitros Oxide from turning Earth into a parking lot. But this remaster is far from stuck in the past: visually, it looks stunning with vivid details around every corner and animations that give each character plenty of personality. The ability to swap between characters during Adventure mode and the cosmetic options are welcome additions, and learning to master each of these 31 tracks proved to be a real challenge because of their frequent tight turns, competent (though sometimes cheap) competition from the AI.

CTR Nitro-Fueled has an Adventure mode, local and online play, five battle modes, and three challenge modes building on the foundation of the original, but what matters most is how it feels to get behind the wheel. In that regard, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is a success. The wickedly fast speed, which is significantly faster than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, can be jarring at first but it was a welcome joyride once I got a feel for the course. The karts are fast in nature but the power-slide mechanic takes that speed to another level.

There are 31 race single tracks in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled cutting across both Crash Team Racing and Vicarious Visions’ 2003 sequel, Crash Nitro Kart. Given that, it’s a disappointment that the Adventure mode only sends us through just 17, (minus a few optional challenges), all of which come from the original CTR.

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