Executive Summary
Hotel Dusk is a must play for DS owners who are a bit older than the typically targeted Nintendo DS age demographic.
Information
Developer	Cing
Publisher	Nintendo
Genre	Adventure
Release Date	01-22-2007
ESRB Information
Mild language Mild violence Use of Alcohol
More information at; http://esrb.org

The DS library of games continues to grow every week, but the majority of games seem to cater to a younger demographic. Which for the most part leaves drinking aged DS gamers like myself wanting more than the typical DS fare has to offer.

Enter "Hotel Dusk: Room 215", released in Q1 2007, this DS adventure game provides an engrossing experience not found in many DS games.

In Hotel Dusk, you take on the role of Kyle Hyde, who is currently employed by Red Crown as a traveling salesmen. There is much more to it then that, but I'll leave the rest to you to figure out. The story in Hotel Dusk subscribes to the "nothing is what it seems" school of thought, but fortunately neglected to read the chapters written by M. Night Shyamalan. So while the game has plenty of twists and turns coming your way, you will not be completely blindsided or beaten over the head by the complexity of the story.

The game helps you remember what's going on in the twisty story by keeping key details about characters and events in your notebook, so if you forget which room whats-his-face is in, you can just look it up in that characters page in the notebook. In addition to that, you also get a notebook where you can write your own notes. Kyle also reviews they key events of each chapter before moving on to the next. The game does a great job of helping you keep track of who's who and whats what. So you won't need to take any notes outside of the game. One word of caution however; I would recommend playing this game over the course of a week or so, because if you forget too much of whats going on between sessions it can be difficult to get back into the game.

While the story is great, most folks may be frightened away when they first see the games interface. Holding the DS Brain Age style, you use the stylus on the touch screen to navigate through the environment. On the opposite screen is a first person view of the direction you are facing. While the texture quality is not great, it is better than most 3D on the DS and provides plenty of detail to figure out what you are looking at. At first glance the interface may look clunky or gimmicky, but it actually works really well, and feels natural after you use it for a minute or two. Interacting with objects and characters in the environment is made simple by icons at the top of the touch screen which light up when there is an associated action nearby.

Hotel Dusk is made a complete package by its soundtrack. The ambient music sets the mood for the environment you are in, from mellow tunes while navigating the environment to energizes tracks during key conversations. Most of the characters also have individual tunes associated with them, which help to add personality and dimension to the wide spectrum of character types in Hotel Dusk.

If you are a fan of adventure games, or are looking for a great storytelling experience on the DS, that is not targeted to the eight year old Pokemon player, Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is definitely a game to have in your DS library.

External Links

Wikipedia page
Get it on Amazon.com

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Preface

Currently there are two wireless encryption protocols that are widely used in consumer wireless access points. WEP (Wired Equivalent Protocol) and WPA (WiFi Protected Access). If possible, it is highly recommended that WPA be used in place of WEP because of some known vulnerabilities in the way WEP operates.

However, many people still use WEP on their wireless networks. Either because they have an older device that does not support WPA, they use an access point provided by their ISP and don't realize that they have a wireless network, or are unaware of the risks of using WEP to secure a wireless network.

If you are forced to run WEP on your wireless network it is important to test the strength of your key and the resistance of your wireless equipment to attack. Hence this guide has been written to help you test your wireless network against some of the more common attacks.