AK-xolotl makes the most of its deadly and adorable premise with mountains of guns and even more unique axolotls to play with. If you’re a fan of roguelikes that are on the cuter side, then you need to check out this top-down shooter developed by 2Awesome Studio. 

In this Bullet Hell, you play as a lone axolotl on a mission to rescue your kidnapped babies and, more importantly, find the food that went missing with them. This quest will see you fight through various biomes and against multiple gun-wielding enemies like spinning crabs and rabid forest dwellers. 

No one run is the same thanks to the random paths you can take, but all roads ultimately lead to the deadly boss that lays in wait at the very end. While this does help to make each run feel slightly fresh, limited map layouts mean you’re struck with deja vu all too often. 

AK-pex predator 

Ak-xolotl’s premise is unique; there aren’t many games where you can play as a disgruntled axolotl fighting its way through hordes of rabbits, raccoons, and rats. There’s also a great deal of weapons for you to get your webby paws on. While the classic AK gives you unlimited ammo, you always have the choice to carry another weapon. This could be anything from a katana to an automatic pistol. Each weapon brings with it its own benefits, such as power or fire rate, and negatives, such as limited ammo. 

Luckily, you won’t have to save these extra weapons for a rainy day, as you’ll always be able to pick up more as you forge ahead. Almost every room you come across will have more than one door to choose from after you’ve wiped it clean of enemies. Behind these doors often lies a new gun, power-ups, coins, or even a baby axolotl in need of rescuing.  Therefore, before unleashing an entire magazine on some aggressive rabbits, it’s best practice to look ahead and see if a new gun is going to be available afterwards. 

There are also handy power-ups to get to grips with. Once you clear a room of rabid animals, you can choose one of three power-ups to aid you on your adventure. While some are straightforward, such as giving you more health or accelerating your speed, others are more imaginative and massively powerful. You can leave a trail of goo that will slow down opponents, electrocute enemies that come too close, or even damage attackers when you get hurt. Each power-up is critical in getting you to the boss room, and beyond, as you hurtle through various biomes and obstacles, facing more and more dangerous enemies. 

You could sink hours into this Bullet Hell as a result. The number of various power-ups and weapons means there’s so much experimentation to try in order to create a potential game-winning combination. No matter how many times you end back at the beginning, you’ll always want to go back for more just in case your new combination works out.

Nature or nurture 

While witnessing the hyper-aggressive nature of these gun-wielding axolotls can be fun, the similarity of map layouts can make runs frustratingly repetitive. Luckily, however, there’s more to do in AK-xolotl than simply gun down forest dwellers, which will help to mix things up. 

A few side quests can help fill the time in AK-xolotl and also give you a much-needed reprieve from the deadly bullet hell. One of my favorites has to be nurturing the baby axolotls that you find across the maps. There are little banana axolotls, cow axolotls, and of course, pretty little pink ones. You can invest a serious amount of time into looking after them. 

If you complete the few mini-games aimed at caring for the babies, such as cleaning them up or changing their diapers, they will then grow into hungry teenagers. After this, you will have to cook meals and feed the adolescent axolotls to ensure they grow strong and healthy. Only after they’ve reached adulthood can you swap characters and play through levels as them. 

It’s a great alternative to simply unlocking new skins, and, this way, you’ve got way more of an incentive to rescue the baby axolotls because, while they are cute, it provides a fun way to fill your time between hellish runs. 

However, if permadeath and massive restarts aren’t for you, be sure to think things through before entering into AK-xolotl, as no matter how far you get once you die, you’ll start again from the very beginning. For newcomers to the roguelike genre, you may be able to circumvent these aggravating restarts by splitting your time between Bullet Hells and Nursery.  The nurturing mini-games for baby axolotls offer up enough reprieve to help you ease into the game's often brutal ways of progressing through levels.

There’s not much else to say about AK-xolotll; it’s a well-made game that’s entertaining to play, with a funny concept that makes it stand out from the crowd. If you’re a fan of Bullet Hells, then this absolutely delivers. At the same time, the dungeon-crawling aspect of this roguelike is hard enough to make you come back for more but doesn’t cross the line over to become incredibly frustrating.  

Accessibility  

The accessibility settings aren’t massively fleshed out in AK-xolotl, but some useful options are present. Screen shake, blood, camera focus, and vibration can all be toggled on or off. There are also two difficulty options to make things a bit more accessible, as well as different degrees of aim assist to aid you in battle. 

How we reviewed

I played 6 hours of AK-xolotl on its most challenging mode to see how various enemies and weapons faired under pressure. Despite more than a few restarts, I had a great time crushing through hordes of evil animals and even a few of the starter bosses.

While I reviewed AK-xolotl on PC, I did have a go at the console version during my preview at Gamescom. I found that using a mouse and keyboard is more straightforward than playing with a controller, mainly due to aggravating aim assist, which can backfire during fights and send your axolotl shooting off in random directions.  

For more fantastic permadeath struggles, be sure to check out these fantastic roguelike games and indie games you can play right now.

Owning a PC means owning a complex machine where things can go wrong in many ways. Your computer contains hundreds of hardware components that must work together to function. Software adds further complexity to the process, as any little bug can distort your PC’s ability to operate.

It’s advisable to have a tool that helps identify and fix issues on your PC, and Fortect Protect is one such tool. It works both as a PC optimizer as well as an antivirus to protect your PC from online threats. After downloading this tool, you can scan your PC regularly to detect malware, junk files, missing files, or any other possible threats.

Having Fortect at your side will help keep your PC in good shape, but the catch is that this tool only works with the Windows operating system. What does Fortect offer to users, and how does it work? Our review will let you know.

Fortect: Plans and pricing

Fortect offers a free version of its tool that lets users scan their PCs regularly. This free tool identifies and fixes problems on your PC, but the number of fixes is limited. The free plan also doesn’t offer direct support.

Fortect charges an annual fee for its paid plan. You can pay $33.95 annually for a single PC license with unlimited scans and repairs. 

You can also choose the Multi-Device plan for 3 PCs, costing $41.95 annually, or the Ultimate plan for 5 PCs, costing $58.95 annually. You can share these plans with your friends, family, and colleagues.

You can pay on Fortect's website through PayPal or a credit/debit card. If you're unsatisfied with the product after paying, you can request a refund within 60 days of your purchase.

Fortect: Features

Fortect utilizes artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect security-related issues on your PC, like malware, junk files, crashed programs, etc. This tool is based on the Avira anti-malware engine designed to identify and block malicious software from infiltrating PCs. Avira has a vast database of PC threats that remains constantly updated. It also uses machine learning and behavioral analysis to spot anomalies on computers.

You can download Fortect from the official website (www.Fortect.com) and install it on your PC. Our installation didn’t take long because of this tool’s relatively small size. During installation, you can choose whether Fortect will run an automatic scan afterward or not.

After installing Fortect, you have six menus on the dashboard: PC Profile, Crashed Programs, Malware and PUA, Junk Files, Broken Registry, and Privacy Traces. Let’s dive deeper into these menus below. 

PC Profile

The PC Profile is the menu where Fortect gives a detailed overview of your PC. At the top, it’ll list all the hardware specifications of your PC, including the CPU, mainboard, memory, local drivers, and video card.

Scroll down a bit, and you’ll find other important information. You’ll see the available space on your PC, the number of CPU cores, CPU power, hard disc drive speed, and even the real-time CPU temperature.

The PC Profile menu provides detailed information about your desktop or laptop in one spot. Normally, you’ll need considerable time and effort to find this information, but Fortect aggregates and delivers it in a single menu. 

Crashed programs

Windows PC users often complain about crashed programs. You’re using an app, and suddenly, it stops working. You’ll have to restart the app to continue using it.

Debugging crashed programs can be challenging, especially for non-technical people with little knowledge about a computer’s internals. But Fortect offers a solution. It scans your PC and identifies programs that have frequently crashed over several months. It then pinpoints the issues with this app.

On our test PC, Fortect identified 18 apps that crashed frequently over several months. 12 were built-in Windows apps, and the other 6 were third-party apps. Fortect will indicate the last time the crash occurred to give you more context. 

We used the premium version of Fortect, which made it easy to fix the identified issues. You can click View & Fix for each app and proceed to resolve the issue. You can also deploy a fix for all apps simultaneously. 

Malware & PUA

Malware and potentially unwanted applications (PUA) are major problems for every PC owner. Hackers build sophisticated malware to install on unsuspecting PCs. They can use malware to steal sensitive information from your PC, install spying tools, or lock your files and demand a ransom payment to unlock it, i.e., ransomware.

Fortect helps you detect and fix malware on your PCs before it’s too late. On our test PC, it identified one file resembling a virus. We immediately deployed a fix, which took less than a minute.

Junk files

Junk files are files that serve no purpose on your computer. They were created to enable your computer to perform a task but became useless after your PC performed that task. Examples include thumbnails, app installers, browsing caches, etc.

Junk files can occupy significant space on your computer and slow it down despite having no utility. The good news is that Fortect helps you identify and delete these files in one swoop.

Fortect found roughly 439 MB of junk files on our test PC. They were mostly temporary log files for different apps. As usual, we used the View & Fix button to solve the issue (by deleting the junk files).

Broken registry

Every Windows PC has a Registry. This registry is a database of configuration settings for your Windows operating system. It manages the settings for all your applications and ensures things work just as you have configured them.

Fortect scans your PC for defective registry files and lets you fix them. It also checks for missing registry files and replaces them with the correct files from its extensive database.

Privacy traces

Fortect can trace the browsing data that different apps have stored on your PC. Most of this data would come from your primary web browser, e.g., Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. You can delete the browsing data to preserve your privacy, but note that it may interfere with your browser’s usual function, e.g., you might have to log into all your websites afresh.  

Browser extension

Fortect also offers a Google Chrome extension to protect you as you surf the internet. This extension scans the websites you visit and alerts you if you visit any suspicious websites. It gives detailed reports and logs of your browsing activity, providing insights about the threats you face.

The best thing about the Fortect extension is that it’s free to use.

Fortect: Interface and in use

Installing Fortect was a seamless process for us. You’ll download the executable file from the official website and kickstart the installation process on your PC. It took just a few minutes during our test. Afterward, you can start scanning or upgrade your plan by inserting the license key you paid for.

Fortect has an intuitive interface that you’d find easy to understand. The dashboard is similar to a web page where you can seamlessly scroll and switch to different menus. It is minimal and uncluttered.

After Fortect identifies issues with your PC, you can fix them individually or simultaneously.

Fortect: Support

Fortect offers direct support via email. If you have any issues, you can fill out the contact form on the official website and wait for an email response. You can also access user guides and FAQs to help solve your issues.

We didn’t see any option for live chat or telephone support on Fortect’s website, which puts it at a disadvantage compared to the competition.  

Fortect: The competition

Iolo System Mechanic is the main competitor to Fortect that we’d like to highlight. Like Fortect, System Mechanic scans your PC to detect malware, viruses, or other threats. It also helps you optimize your disk space by clearing unnecessary files.

System Mechanic costs as low as $15 annually, making it cheaper than Fortect. It also provides telephone support, giving it a competitive edge over Fortect, which is limited to email support.

Yet, Fortect beats System Mechanic in usability. It has a more intuitive interface than its counterpart.

Fortect: Final verdict

Fortect does its job well. Fortect helps you protect and optimize your PC’s performance for an affordable price. It has a modern, intuitive interface that you’ll likely enjoy using. The little drawback we observed is the limited (email-only) customer support option.

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Xcitium (formerly known as Comodo Security Solutions) has been around for over 25 years. They made headlines in 2010 by openly challenging cybersecurity giant Symantec's claim that paid antivirus programs are better than free antivirus software - Comodo/Xcitium was right and to this day there's not much evidence that paying more gives users significantly better antivirus protection.

Given this company had the courage to go toe to toe with the big names in security software, we were eager to try out their 'Xcitium Advanced' Endpoint Protection platform. The main product page claims that it offers both EPP (Endpoint Protection) and EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) using a range of advanced detection and prevention features. The platform has even earned the seal of approval of independent review website av-test.org.  

This begs the question : has Xcitium created one of the best endpoint security software solutions that could even put the big names in the industry to shame?

Xcitum Advanced: Plans and pricing

Xcitium offers a range of platform products, including Xcitium Managed for MDR (Managed Detection and Response) and Xcitium Ultimate for XDR (Extended Detection and Response). 

Xcitium Advanced itself doesn't appear to offer any staged tiers of service, so subscribers can benefit from all the advertised EPP/EDR features. Unfortunately if you're looking for specific pricing for your organization, you'll need to contact Xcitium's sales department directly as there's no pricing table on the product page. 

The company do however, allow you to request a custom demo of the product. Xcitium also has a registration page for interested parties to create a new account in order to request a trial version of products.

Xcitum Advanced: Features

According to the registration e-mails we received the motto of Xcitium Advanced is "Unleash the Power of Zero". In other words, users of the platform can look forward to zero data breaches or other threats.

Chief benefits of the platform included advanced endpoint security Anti-Virus (AV), Viruscope (NGAV), endpoint detection and response (EDR), Host Intrusion Prevention System (HIPS), a Firewall (FW), and endpoint management (EM) capabilities. 

The company claims their platform is a cut above the rest in threat prevention via 'ZeroDwell Containment'. This is actually a standalone product which forms part of Xcitium Advanced and incorporates a number of features. In the company's own words, these include:

"...Advanced EDR service delivery from the Xcitium Threat Research Labs (XTRL), and the Verdict Cloud engine, a file safety determination service used to assess isolated files and objects to EDR provide a malicious or safe verdict about contained Unknowns."

The aforementioned 'Verdict Cloud Engine' deserves special mention, as it purportedly publishes results published globally in real-time for all Xcitium Advanced EDR customers to reduce threats across the board.

The product's data sheet also provides an excellent summary of Xcitium Advanced features, including fileless malware detection, which can prevent threats found in areas like RAM instead of data files.

The platform also has a highly-configurable alerts policy (we were very pleased to see the option to receive email alerts during our tests). These include notifications about the aforementioned fileless attacks, advanced persistent threats (APTs), and privilege escalation attempts.

Special mention should also go to the 'Virtual Desktop' feature for those users who install the 'Security' add-on for the endpoint agent (see below). Naturally this provides an excellent way to view and work with files with minimal risk to the host operating system. 

Xcitum Advanced: Setup

The good people of Xcitium were kind enough to provide TechRadar with a trial version of Xcitium Advanced, which we were able to access through a simple sign up portal.

We were very impressed to see that immediately after creating an account the platform encourages users to set up 2FA (two-factor authentication) and even recommends suitable authenticator apps. 

Users are then asked to create their own subdomain, which is used to access the Xcitium cloud console. On first launch the console displays a helpful wizard, which provides a download link for agent software. Xcitium Advanced supports endpoints for Windows, Mac and Linux. We were astonished how quickly the helpful wizard installed the agent on our test machine, as we had it up and running in less than 30 seconds.

Once this is installed, the wizard also encourages you to install additional packages to provide better security & EDR protection. 

Xcitum Advanced: Interface

Our first experience of the Xcitium Advanced interface proper was when we were invited to install the additional Security and EDR packages, via the 'Device List'. We were especially impressed to see the main options for endpoints such as 'File Transfer'.

You can also click on device names to view more detailed information about endpoints, though the device list also contains a handy summary of highlighted icons to show which features are enabled e.g. AV = antivirus.

As TechRadar readers know, we believe the most important aspect of any UI is the main dashboard and we weren't disappointed by Xcitium Advanced's main screen. In fact, the platform has a number of endpoints for various features like services, auditing and endpoints themselves.

We were delighted to see that the endpoint dashboard displays alerts at the very top of the screen and even provides a helpful pie chart breaking down alerts by category. Other infographics display helpful information on contained files and detections per endpoint.

Special mention should also go to the 'Software Inventory', the 'Global' section of which lists all installed programs on endpoints. Users can quickly click to select apps and then to uninstall or export details in CSV format.

Our only small criticism here is that the 'Notifications' area only contained information relevant to the installation of Xcitium itself - we had to look elsewhere to find details of actual alerts. In fairness, users can view more details about these by clicking into alert notifications via the dashboard. 

Xcitum Advanced: Performance

When reviewing endpoint security platforms our first test is always to attempt to download a fake computer virus, provided by the good people of EICAR.

We checked that the Antivirus and security features were enabled on our endpoint before visiting the website containing the malware. Each time we tried to download the file in compressed (ZIP) format, we found that the Xcitium agent had altered the file permissions so that the test virus couldn't be saved to the 'Downloads' folder.

The agent didn't show any notification of this but when we opened the cloud console, we saw the file had been quarantined and an alert was generated. 

Our next test was to try to copy a recent, real computer virus we'd caught in the wild onto the test machine's "Downloads" folder. We do this to check that an endpoint security platform can detect and prevent threats based on a program's behaviour, not just by comparing file signatures to an online database.

Xcitium Advanced didn't fare as well with these tests. We were able to copy the malware (a trojan virus) to the 'Downloads' folder without triggering any alerts from the platform. We decided to right-click the file to run a scan with Xcitium antivirus but no threat was found. The agent also offers the option to run the file in an Xcitium container. We did this but the cloud console log seemingly showed the file as safe.

We were troubled by this, so returned to the console to check the device policies. We enabled the 'Comodo Containment' profile, then ran the tests again with a new, real computer virus. This time the agent did detect and quarantine it, as shown by the cloud console logs.

This is strong proof that Xcitium Advanced can detect and prevent threats based on file behavior, though it's clear the security settings may need some tweaking to gain the full benefits of protection as we were able to run the original real trojan virus and infect our test machine without the agent detecting any issues. 

Xcitum Advanced: Final verdict

Overall, there's much we enjoyed about Xcitium Advanced. We don't take for granted the easy registration and setup, as some platforms will only provide demos rather than let you try the software for yourself. We were especially thrilled that the agent software only took seconds to deploy. 

The cloud console is well laid out and the multiple dashboards allow users to chop and change data in any way they see fit. It's a shame we couldn't find more readily available information on pricing but in fairness Xcitium Advanced's sales team is only a phone call away.

When it comes to preventing downloads of potentially dangerous files, this platform passed our tests with flying colors both with the fake computer virus and one which we attempted to download from a known malware website. 

As readers have seen, the results were more hit and miss when we tested with real computer viruses that had been manually copied onto our test machine. At the suggestion of Xcitium staff we changed the device profile to 'Windows - Secure', which uses the platform's containment technology but with the same results as before.

As Meatloaf taught us, "Two out of three" ain't bad and it's entirely possible that the trojan we originally used wasn't detected due to incorrect configuration or a temporary error. Still, it's the same virus we used in tests of other endpoint security platforms and is almost always detected and quarantined.

If you're considering this platform, we suggest you work closely with Xcitium to make sure your threat database is up to date and your agent is using the correct security profile. 

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