Yet Another Gaming Blog

Dash to the Altar

2009-09-21T20:32:00.007-04:00

Wedding Dash

Wedding Dash 2: Rings Around the World

Wedding Dash: Ready, Aim, Love!

I have to come come clean with something. I am a wedding addict. I am obsessed with wedding shows, blogs, and the such. This might not be to surprising since there are plenty of other females with this addiction. The newest wedding high that I've grown to love is the Wedding Dash series.

Wedding Dash is one of the many Dinner Dash spin-offs. You play as Quinn an up and coming wedding planner. Its her (your) job to make sure the newlywed's day (specifically the reception) with out a hitch.

The game mostly plays as other Dash games. There are two modes Career Mode and Endless reception. In Career mode you start off by choosing things like food, honeymoon, and decorations to fulfill the couples desires. Afterward you go to the main game and begin seating guest. All the guest have specific areas they want to sit at. Once seated the waitress has to has to deliver various food items upon the guests requests. Some guest are more patient about getting their food than others. If the guests are happy the bride and groom are happy. Once all three courses (appetizer, main course, and cake) have been eaten the guest then go to the dance floor. Other than make sure that the guest are fed are little mishaps that occur such as brides maids fighting or an aunt losing her dog Its up to Quinn to fix things. After mishaps averted and all the guest have been fed and are dancing you'll see if you passed the level.

This game is wonderfully challenging and each guest amusingly charming. At times you can feel things are going over your head when guests start to pile up so you'll need amazing organizational skills. If you're a fan of the Dash games but want a wedding twist I definitely recommend this game for you.

Mario Meets the Sapraonos

2009-07-26T19:38:00.004-04:00

There's this fan series that I've recently become OBSESSED with and that series is called There Will Be Brawl. The series is parody on Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Brawl. You can watch it on its official website or you can watch it on The Escapist.

This series is delectably dark. Also there is a great sense of maturity. That's right its satire with out stupidity. There is no toilet humor or all too cheep gags. The story is sophisticated and complex which seem unfortunately lacking in most parody series.

The main protagonist in this series is, the over looked yet lovable Mario brother, Lugi. Princess Peach has gone missing...again...but there a twist! In the twisted and sinfull world of There Will Be Brawl the city is ruled by four mafia dons, Ganadorf, Dedede, Mewtwo, and Bowser. Someone's been picking them off one by one and it might have something to do with the princess's dissapearance. To make thing worse martial law has been put into place and Mario has been made itno a suspect. Its up to the Lugi to set things right.

It's creators, Matthew Mercer and Zach Grafton, are nothing short of geniouses. The writing for this mini drama is simply top notch. Another thing that blows my mind is the production value, especaily the make up design. You can really see the artistry in episode 4: Strange Bedfellows.

My only complaint is the same thing that I just gave this series praise for. After episode 4 the make up, wile still pretty good, became kind of spotty. This can be noticed especially during the conversation between Lugi and Dedede in episode 6: Loyalties. Another minor complaint is that it takes so long for episodes to come out. But with production quality as high (most likely their doing this out of pocket) as this I'm willing to wait once a month.

The series throws plenty of references to Nintendo games past and present. Some references more are more ovious other are for the tide and true Nintendo fanboys/girls out there. Even if you are not a fan of video games you would deffinetly enjoy this web drama.

The Biggest Bimbo of Them All!

2009-05-04T22:29:00.014-04:00

As you all know I'm a HUGE sucker for games where you can customize little avatars. Miss Bimbo has managed to pull me in it's little web. I stumbled on this game as an advertisement on One Manga.

Your goal is to become the biggest Bimbo amongst thousands of other Bimbos. In order not to get lost amongst the massive sea of Bimbos you have to keep track of your Bimbo's stats. You have to make sure that your Bimbo is well hydrated, fed, maintains her ideal weight and the such to maintain her happiness. You can earn Bimbo attitude points by completing various games, goals, or challenges. You can earn Bimbo Dollars by getting a job, boyfriend, or buying them via PayPal.

The game is geared towards the preteen to midteen demographic. As one would guess its plastered with sparkles and neon pink. The games are basically new skinned versions of familiar casual games. You get your own (female) 2D avatar that you can customise like in popular casual games like Zwinky (but better drawn).

When I was playing this game it brought up an interesting thoughts about games geared towards females in general in general. Can games geared towards females contain more than rehashed older games? Should such a game that idealises such shallow ideals be geared towards such a impressionable audience?...but that's for another blog post...

Stinky Pants

2009-04-05T22:09:00.005-04:00

I recently finished playing this called Don't Shit Your Pants. The object of the game is to make shore that your avatar on screen doesn't defecate in his trousers. That task was harder for me that it needed to be.

It took me some time to figure out how to make the avatar to do what I ask it. I had to reset my thinking. I was typing full sentences but to no avail. My pants were shat it. After frantically typing at the keyboard I figured out that I can make the pink dude obey me a bit better by giving simpler commands. Still, I shat my pants. Finally I figured out how to use the toilet.

It seems that it takes others a wile to figure the controls as well. My friend desperately failed at opening the door several times until he figured out to open it. I had to help him how to figure out the commands to have the balding man on screen do his bidding.

The game was slightly entertaining but mostly frustrating. This became more apparent when a friend of mine trying to gain all the achievements couldn't figure out the last two. She finally wound up looking for a walk through and finding the commands. The commands were nothing her or I could have thought of or figured out ourselves. I can understand that the creator of this game wanted to give the players a challenge but it was still more difficult than it needed to be.

I'm Still Crazy For Crazy Taxi: Part 2

2009-04-01T01:01:00.001-04:00

I was over by Mr Pizza the other day. Wile waiting for my order to be completed I decided to get a few quick rounds of Crazy Taxi. As I was playing I noticed significant change from when I first played this game and now.

Back during the early 2000's I was around 13-14 was when I got the game for my Dreamcast. Needless to say one would expect the controls to be considerably different from the actual arcade version. Still it made me wonder. If I were to play the arcade version back then how I would fare? I remember when as a child having a low depth perception. This showed itself time and time again whenever I tried driving go carts. I would always smash into the walls and wait for the operator to pull me out and set me off on my merry little way.

I'm 21 going on 22 with four years of having my driver's licence under my belt. Even though I don't drive very often (I don't own a car) I imagine I would fair better if I was set up against my early teen self. This makes me think my skills in the real world and bringing them into virtual worlds. This doesn't just go for arcade games like crazy taxi but a game like GTA as well. Unless I'm in a REALLY desperate situation I don't crash into buildings or (mostly) crash into other cars.

Its real interesting to think about something like this. Is it because of being older with a more developed brain that makes me a better gamer or is it that real world experience that makes me a better gamer? I guess time will only tell.

My Little Princess

2008-12-16T13:19:00.017-05:00

Over the this past summer I've been hooked on an older Japanese title called Princess Maker 2. Its a child rearing sim with a few RPG elements.

Apparently you (the player) were sort of great war hero who saved a kingdom from the forces of evil. On a starry night the gods entrust you to raise a child of the heavens to raise a child from age ten to eighteen. From then you choose out your family name, your birthday, your daughter's name, her birthday, and her blood type. All this decides her personality and temperament.

To help you to rear your child is a little demon called Cube. Basically he's a butler who just wants whats best for your daughter. At the beginning of each month you have to set up a schedule for you child to follow. You can have your daughter go to school and learn the art of painting, dance, protocol, poetry, science, theology, fencing, strategy, fighting, magic. In order to pay for that fancy schooling she has to take part time jobs. Both of these increase or decrease your daughter's stats in Cooking, Cleaning, Strength, Morals, Faith, Magic, Conversation, Charisma, Sin and etc. If you work her too hard she will begin to rebel or become ill. All these stats are important to determine you daughter's future.

Once a year there is a harvest festival. Around this time you get your yearly pay and chose what compition to enter your duaghter in. The four contests are Combat, Exibition, Dance Party, and Cook-off. Depending on what stats you focused your daughter in will determin how well she fairs in each event.

Another feature is the RPG Adventures you can send your duaghter on. You take controle of your duaghter and have her explore for several days. There are four areas to explore: Forest, Desert, Glacier, and Lake. On this little outing your duaghter can find items and have battles with the local creatures. Most of the battles are random encounters. Just like a regular RPG your duaghter will need armor, weapons, some magic skill and a few potions to fend off the badies. Your daughter never dies if she does happen to get defeated. She will simply get knocked out and your faithful butler, Cube, will sweep in and bring your darling daughter home.

The major thing I love about this game are all the mutliple endings. If you try hard enough your daughter can become queen of the kingdom or queen of the underworld. Its all up to you!

I have mostly fond memoires playing through this game. I found the Advenure element entertaining and cute. Intrestgly enough, I found out that if your duaghter has high enough charisma or refinement monsters don't attack you. My greatest acheivement playing through was when my duaghter ended up as a Bondage Queen and then married Saten. My only major problem with the game was the fact my daughter kept running away. Even when I made shure she was happy and all her stats were up she would run away randomly and that would totally screw up my sceduale. That was majorly anoying. Other than that flaw I found this tittle to be and entertaining game.

A Time For Mourning For One Of Our own

2008-08-03T11:33:00.011-04:00

There is a time for laughter and there is a time for weeping. I was on Kutaku this morning when I came across this tragic article. Melissa Batten, a software developer for the Xbox 360, was horrifically murdered by her estranged husband on Tuesday, July 29. After he brutally slaughtered his wife he turned the gun on himself and committed suicide.

This is a great loss for the gaming community. I read more on what happened on the Seattle Times website. According to the news article she had requested a protection order against her husband and told the court that he had recently purchased a gun. He at one point called her about 30 times and threaten her not to hang up. The man even barged into her place of work but was luckily caught by security personnel.

This really struck home not only as a gamer or as someone who hopes to get into the industry, but as a woman. Domestic violence is no laughing matter. Its horrifying to think of living in fear of someone like that. To be constantly be looking over your shoulder and worrying where or when the other individual is going to strike just sends down shivers down my spine.

I was reading the comments to the article on Kutaku. Most were respectful but there were a few that were highly inappropriate for the situation. Thankfully these offenders have been banned (eight thus far) from commenting on the site. have had a bad reputation for being lazy, apathetic, testosterone driven, violent, immature, and sadistic. Still, we can't let a few ruin things for us.

I would like to give my condolences to both sides of this tragedy. I didn't personally know this woman but its still sad when these things happen to a fellow human being. We shouldn't just lend our thoughts and our prayers to the dead but to the ones left behind as well. May your spirit rest in peace. She will be missed.

A Sad Sad Song

2008-07-25T14:20:00.003-04:00

It's amazing what one finds during a Google search. I was doing a search on the Scout from Team Fortress 2. Lets get this out in the open. I think he's pretty cute. Square jaws just aren't for me but a narrow face is just perfect. Anyway...

So I was looking for some pictures when I stumbled upon LitFuseFilms. It's a machinima site. For those who aren't in the know. Machinima are movies created using video game content. A popular series is Red vs Blue which was created using Halo 2.

Another game that is popular machinima making tool is The Sims 2. I even dabbled in it a bit back in my high school days. Of course mine are ultra low quality and very amature video editing. I might remake this particular film with better quality and better editing. If that's done I'll be sure to post it up on here.

Once on LitFuseFilms' site I came across this one film called Jil's Song written and directed by Zachariah Scott. I have seen my fare share of machinimas but I am by no means an expert. Still, I have to say that this film was simply beautiful. This has to be the best machinima I have ever seen and probably one of the best short films I've seen in general.

Jil's Song is about about a middle aged man in therapy describing his relationship with his lover/wife. He compares love to a song beautiful when it heard but missed when its gone. A haunting piano melody plays in the background as the main character gives his narration. The cinematography is like nothing I've seen before in a machinima. The character models are realistic and the facial expressions are subtle and almost believable. The lip syncing is done very well but I felt a bit distracted by the lower lip strangely stretching at some moments. The voice acting is just terrific. The monologue has enchanting rhythm and flows from the character's lips.

This short film brings up an important discussion. You often see characters in movies, books, and games living happily ever after. If you've read my previous article on Our Passage you would know that I don't have a rosy picture on love. Being a child of divorce I have seen first hand that love does fade. From personal experience I know how desperate one can feel when you find that your feelings are no longer returned. I can truly empathy with the man in this film. Love is such a beautiful tragic song.

Where the Hell is My Ceiling Fan?!

2008-07-15T20:27:00.006-04:00

If you have read my previous entry you would know that I am a pretty huge Sims fan. I've been really into Sim games since Sim Town. Today wile I was browsing Kutaku I came across the new E3 trailer for The Sims 3. Watching the new trailer made me wonder what features were actually going to be in the game.

I first found out about the Sims from the back of the Sim City 3000 CD case. It looked pretty interesting but never gave it to much thought. I saw it in the store and I begged my father to get it for me. When I first saw the little virtual people it was love at first sight. I wasn't a plumber or a pirate. I was playing with real people. I became obsessed.

I never saw the trailer for the original The Sims game before I purchased it. I decided to check it out since I was already on YouTube. The trailer is basically a glimpse of what the Sims will look like. All of it was pre-rendered and didn't even show any game play. I don't know how far in production they were in but I assume it was pretty early.

Since I was so obsessed it would only make sense that I would anticipate of the release of The Sims 2. I was a freshman in high school then. When I first saw the trailer it was like falling in love all over again. The graphical improvement were dazzling and all the new things the Sims could do were short of jaw dropping. I just couldn't wait until the release date. Then the release got pushed back TWICE. At that point in time I felt lied to. Some piece of me had been taken that I could never find again.

Once I finally got the game I noticed some things things were missing that I saw in the tailor. For starters, I noticed children couldn't slide down banisters, swing off ceiling fans, and babies couldn't breath fire! Frankly, I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't an option to rip off your shirt as well. Some of the hairstyles weren't included but I think that was for the best. Despite all this this didn't discourage me for purchasing almost all the expansion packs.

Now many years later The Sims 3 is coming out. To be honest I don't have that giddy feeling like I did when I heard about the game before it. There seems to be some graphical improvement but its not a jarring as with The Sims to The Sims 2. The uncanny valley really hits the models in this one. I appreciate being able to move from house to house without having to go into some strange time warp. Still, until I am given reason otherwise I remain unimpressed.

Haza for Double Standards!

2008-07-10T14:06:00.003-04:00

If your familure with the Wii Fit girl and how that video her instant internet fame. This has spawned many copy cats. Now at long last their is a video worth watching for the other (minus lesbians) 49.76%.

It's amusing how a video about a girl wiggling her but gets Views: 4,953,475 and gets love and admiration but when a guy does this sort of thing you get comments like this:

"VILE"
~mark0776829

"BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!! SICK!!"
~Dscreations

MY EYES ARE VOMITING!!
~m4xn00b

These are only the Youtube comments! Check out the comments from Kutaku!

I understand that most of the gaming public are white heterosexual males. Still, its preposterous that whenever this sor thing pops up THAT population craps themselves and turns into man-children. Can you imagine being bombarded with this thing all the time. That basically how it feels allot of the times for a female or gay gamer. Even when we do protest we usually are more civil and intellectual about it.

I am by now ways a prude but if your going to do this then its only fare to do this as well.

2008-07-06T15:36:00.002-04:00

I'm a huge fan of intelligently stupid comedy. What I mean by this is comedy on the surface appears to be stupid but quite a bit of thought was put into joke(s). I found this video on YouTube about the Companion Cube done by mrweebl. Enjoy!

Metal Gear?!

2008-06-26T20:33:00.008-04:00

What do you get when you mix Metal Gear Solid 2 game play with Playstaion One graphics? You'll get Metal Gear Solid Mobile. I just completed this cellular phone adventure today. I downloaded this game for my LG Chocolate for about $4 on the Get It Now feature.

Metal Gear Solid Mobile stays true to the Metal Gear Solid experience. Quite a few tools of the trade (including Snakes now famous cardboard box) make their appearance int this inhalation plus some new ones. Stealth camouflage is in this game. It helps you to sneak past guards and to fool security cameras.

The first thing the player will notice are the visuals. Unlike other titles ported to the mobile phone this title doesn't feel like a total cop-out. Everything is rendered in 3d. It's quite impressive for a mobile phone game. The controls are a bit touchy. Shooting in third person can be a bit difficult at times. The game itself is quite short and only has one boss battle. Still, for everything thats crammed into this game its well worth it.

As many fans know, the saga which is Metal Gear is a very complex one. Metal Gear Solid Mobile is by at no means the exception. The story is complex but if you played through Metal Gear Solid 2 it makes more sense. This title takes place after the events of Shadow Moses from original Metal Gear Solid but before the Tanker Incident of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Solid Snake is once again on another stealth mission to stop the walking tank Metal Gear.

In short, if you're already a fan of the series and you don't like cop-out ports Metal Gear Solid Mobile is the game for you.

Bring Out The Monstrosities !

2008-06-20T21:49:00.002-04:00

As some of you may know, EA released a preview of Creature Creator their new game SPORE a few days ago out into the wild. Since then, there has been plenty of wild and bizarre creatures uploaded to the internet.

For those who are not in the know. Spore is a game, designed by Will Wright, based around the evolution of your own completely customizable creature. You first start out in the cellular level and then develop into an advanced alien society.

Even though the Creature Creator very limited at this point in time its still quite advanced. With this amount of customization it brings up a problem. There has been an outbreak in creatures that are quite phallic in nature. This brings up a huge question on player customization. How much is too much "creative expression" when it comes to customizable content in games?

I for one am pretty liberal and a proponent of (most forms of) artistic expression. I doesn't really bother me if someone want their planet overrun with vaginas and penises running across the plain. It's all fine and dandy to me as long as they don't upload their creatures on EA's site. EA has every right to block certain creatures they find offensive.

You may be wondering why I don't have any creatures to share with you fine folks. The answer is quite simple. My dad's computer doesn't have the right graphics card to run the program. My personal laptop is in purgatory. Sadly, for now, I am unable to bask in the genius of Will Wright.

The Race Card Returns

2008-06-20T20:53:00.004-04:00

Ron White once said, "You can't fix stupid." I believe this to be true on so many levels. I'm revisiting my little rant on the "racism" in Capcom's zombie (or infected persons) shoot-em-up Resident Evil 5. I was browsing through Kotaku this evening when I came across this article. It seems that some of my fellow brethren of color can't get over a the "genocide" in RE5.

If there's one thing that pisses me of its people acting self righteous. Reading some of the comments to this article I found it quite amusing how some of the individuals claiming that RE5 is racist can't find a valid reason for their argument. If your going to make an accusation you better have all you cards on the table and make sure your facts are correct.

I for one am all for diversity in games. Still, as a race we shouldn't too choosy on how we want to be represented. Next to no one was complaining when light colored zombies were being killed. At least there seems to be a African female lead in this game.

I showed my dad the trailer in question. The first phrase that came out of him was that it was "gory". I then probed him and asked if he found this offensive in any way. He said that the imagery being presented wasn't offensive to him personally. Still, he did say he can see how people could warp what was being shown.

Whenever the hot button of race comes to play someone manage to rear their ugly little head and says something that is actually racist. I was browsing some of the comments on YouTube that were less than pleasant. I swear the internet transforms people into bumbling idiots at times. Comments like those really shed a really bad light for us in the gaming community.

Will this whole race card thing follow RE5 till it's release and beyond? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Our Passage

2008-06-06T15:49:00.004-04:00

Recently I heard of this artistic game called Passage. If you haven't played passage you'll be in for a surprise. Its not a graphically impressive game. It's more like NES style sprites. There are no monsters to defeat and no princess to save. Its you going through your "passage" through life. The game itself is only about a few minuetes long. So you won't have to invest too much of your time into it.

When you first start out in the game you have the choice to gain a mate or just past her by. As the game progresses your little character(s) age and eventually die. Then it's game over. On the way you can find treasure chests. Quite a few of them are only accessible when you don't have a wife.

Most "hard core" gamers won't appreciate the slightness and the simplistic message the game is portraying. Its sad though. We try to show the rest of the world that games are art but when something that is "artsy" rolls around and most of the gaming community calls it crap. I'm sorry, I didn't know zombie space solder prostitute was a work of art.

I played through this game a couple of times. I was impressed on how profound the message was but I didn't like the message itself. Playing the devil advocate, this got me thinking. As I was said before, there are treasure can only reached when your "single". Does this mean as a woman I am only a burden to my mate? Is the artist saying that I have little to no worth as a person if I don't pick up a mate? When I first saw this being played in my Game Critique and Analysis class I was thinking WTF in the back of my mind. Still, that's a whole different rant.

Recently, I got my dad to play this game and see what he thought of it. My parents have been divorced for almost 11 years now. So they don't have that rose colored glasses about the whole "life mate" thing. It took me a while to get him to actually sit down and play. Finally, I reached success. My father decided to amuse me and play the game. My dad is by no means a gamer. Even though it the control scheme was simplistic it took him a wile to figure out how to move around. He played through twice. Once with the wife and the second without. her. He thought it was cute. I asked him what was the message the game was trying to portray. He got the answer correct more or less. Later on I'm going to get my mom to play and see what she thinks of it.

Pay to play

2008-05-01T00:12:00.007-04:00

I was on Facebook checking on party plans when I saw an ad. Has anyone else heard of this site? It's called iGameTester. Apparently it gives you resources on how to become a beta tester of a ONE TIME FEE. I know that I'm a dumb as a bag of bricks but it doesn't make sense. Why do I have to pay to get a job? There are plenty of other sites that can give you the same info for free. Can you say SCAM!

Speaking of which, I wonder if it's too late to apply for beta testing over the summer?...

Periods are for losers!

2008-02-14T03:33:00.002-05:00

I love Yahtzee and his little video blog Zero Punctuation. His reviews are always humerus and witty. This Wednesday's installment was his review on Sims City Societies. Most you know that I have a god complex. In order to feed the need of lording over things lesser than me Sim games have done quite the trick. I was considering getting this title before my laptop literally slit it's wrists with it's Red Ring of Doom like light.

Enough of me blabbering...enjoy!

Chocolate is Bad 4 U

2008-01-25T15:46:00.001-05:00

I hate chocolate. No, I'm not talking about the sugary candy that makes the world taste good. I'm talking about LG Chocolate from Verizon Wireless. I've owned three cellphones in my life and this one has to be the worst. This phone has caused me nothing but pure missery

I saw the sleek and sexy commercials on my television and decided to get one when it was time to trade in my phone. The main reason why I wanted to get a Mp3 player for some time now. In the advertisements they say that the Chocolate is a phone and a Mp3 player all in one. I thought cool this will be the best of both worlds. I was so wrong.

You might be wondering, "This is fine and dandy. Still, what does this have to do with gaming?". Well I'll tell you. The biggest problem I have with this phone is it's battery life. As a phone on it's own the battery will last you about a day and a half. If you use your phone for anything else it expires much faster. I downloaded Bejewled for my phone so I can play to waste time at the bus stop. After about a half hour the battery was almost dead. It's Bejewled for heaven's sake! On my old phone I had games on there and the battery would last for a good while. The battery life is just pitiful. It's slightly better when you use it for music. You'll get about three hours from charge to death. After your Mp3 player dies...your phone's dead too.

Other than the battery that sets me off is the touch sensitive controls. I've had my phone completely freak out on me. It would ether call people I didn't want to call, continue scrolling when I wanted it to stop, send text messages before I was finished writing, and now the call button doesn't work. The thing had one of it's spasms that cost me a Bejewled game in multiplayer.

It's kind of difficult to use the warenty because I'm away at school right now but I'll try to see if I can get my phone replaced.

I Still Crazy For Crazy Taxi

2008-01-21T03:43:00.001-05:00

Let's go back in time shall we? It's the year 2000. The new millennium has just arrived. The Y2K scare has came and past. Dreamcast is one of the hottest consoles out on the market. Fast forward to present. The Dreamcast is dead but the love I have for Crazy Taxi still alive.

I used to play this game all the time. I recently found out they have the arcade version of this title at the pizza parlor across from the dorms. I was so ecstatic. I've never seen the actual arcade version in real life.

It's one of the few games you can automatically get into without knowing much about the controls. The premise is just so simple! You just pick up patrons and get them to their destinations as fast as possible.

One major difference between this version and the home version is the controls. Mind you, I do drive in real life. (Maybe not often but I do) It wasn't too difficult to get used to the new set up. If felt a bit odd driving in 3rd person view but it wasn't totally crippling.

This really brought back some memories. Maybe I'll pick up the X-Box version if it's backwards compatible.

Comedian Jokes About Dumb Parents

2007-12-28T02:24:00.001-05:00

,

It's official, I'm narcoleptic.

I was recently on YouTube when I came across this. The comedian here is Marquis Oz. I'm not familiar with is work but this is really funny. It's sad how (some) parents are so clueless on raising their own children. Take up some sort of interest in your children's hobbies people!

Some Stuff I Forgot

2007-12-26T19:08:00.001-05:00

I meant to post these around Halloween but things came up. On the left is my friend Allan as the Dr. Gordon Freeman from Half Life 2 and on the left is his friend (I forgot his name) as Naked Snake from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Still, I employ you to enjoy.

I Love Me Some Sim Action

2007-12-18T21:16:00.000-05:00

This has to be one of my best finds on YouTube. I like slash,yaoi, and gay guys...sue me! I'm one of those freakish fangirls you keep hearing about. Seeing two guys makeout makes my girlish heart fill with glee. I read dirty fanfiction and smutty doujinshi. Nothing scares me because I'm a bad person! BWAHAHAHA!

I've been a Sims fan since the original. My interest was sparked when I saw an ad for it on the back of Sim City 300. When I played as my first family I was hooked. I almost have all the expansion packs and played almost every game. Unfortunately because of school I hardly have time to play.

I can remember when I first heard about The Sims 2. I think it was the only game that I was seriously psyched about. I even got depressed when the game got delayed. Thankfully, Sims 2 Body Shop held me over until the actual game was released. The game lived up to most of my expectations. Personally I thought that babies and children were useless in the original Sims. It was so annoying to take care of the baby only to have it be taken away by the social worker. Thankfully dull sim children grow into interesting sim teens.

My favorite expansion pack for the original game has to be Hot Date. The expansion pack gave a level of "realism" to the game. It was the first expansion pack that allowed your sims to leave the house. I was so exited to have my little sims go out on dates.

The best expansion for The Sims 2 so far is Seasons. This brought the game to a whole new level. Perpetual summer/spring is nice and all, but now it feels time is actually passing for my sims. I remember reading that the original game was going to have weather but there was a bug. It was something about it raining inside the house or whatever.

I've also played a few Sims games on my Playstation 2. The best title, for me, would have to be The Sims: Bustin Out. The game introduced your sims actually owning a car (well vehicle since you start off with a scooter after you leave you mother's house). This wasn't introduced into the PC version until Night Life expansion pack. Another thing that I loved about this game was being able to visit your neighbors house and play as a guest. I've always wanted to do that in the PC version. Hopefully they'll implement it in Sims 3 or in another expansion pack.

The only Sims game that I've played was a disappointment was Sims 2 for the PS2. The customization was great but the game play was a bore. I returned it a week later and got one third of what a payed for it because the package was open. (Grrr GameStop)

I think I felt a connection with almost every sim I've created. Would you find it funny that I've never played a sim from birth to death? I guess there are many reasons behind this. When I first installed The Sims 2 I had a really cool main family. It started off with a single parent mom and her teenage son. Her son grew up then she got pregnant by her son's wife's uncle. I felt bad for her so I had her marry this cute guy. They had a bunch of kids. Finally the daughter from her son's wife's uncle grew up moved out with her younger sister and got married. I was planning on having the younger sister to be my first sim to go of to college but I had problems installing the University expansion pack. I had to reinstall the game therefore losing my family. I tried recreating the family but it didn't feel the same. By then I had created the "perfect" family. It consisted of a husband, wife, teenage son, child daughter, toddler daughter, and the wife's sister. The husband wanted ten kids.So, I decided to let him do it...with every other woman in the neighborhood except wife. Needless to say the wife wasn't too pleased when she found out and kicked him out of the house. Fortunately, he remarried and proceeded to cheat on his new wife. Things would have progressed further but my sister installed Kazah and Kazah killed our computer. Fast-forward a bit to a more recent time. I finally have my very own laptop. One of my first families was a guy, his sister, and her two kids. The guy's sister and her kids moved out of the house after she marries this doctor who's ex-wife had a baby for her brother. The guy marries this girl who's sister became roommates with his sister's husband's ex-wife who just happened to be his baby's mother. The guy's nephew goes off to college and fathers a child with this woman. After college the nephew marries this other chick. The chick's sister moves in the guy's niece. The niece has a baby by this jerk she knew from college who also had a kid her aunt. The jerk also was dating her aunt's roommate. The aunt's roommate remarried to this rich club owner. She's dead now.

This makes me think about the discussions we had in class about nutritive in games. Do games need epic stories like the Final Fantasy series to be a great game? Can a player have fun making up their own story as the go along? These things I'll have to think about as the years go on.

Viva the Gaming Revolution

2007-12-15T00:39:00.000-05:00

Yeah, yeah I know that I haven't updated for some time. Last night I watched Rise of the Video Games on Discovery Times. I thought it would be educational for my parents since I'm studying game development at school. This documentary has been going on for some time. Still I manage to miss it. Finally tonight my mother and I got the chance to watch it.

The documentary had it's usual fanfare you would expect. They went over the history one would find in a textbook or Wikipedia. They had interviews with the who’s who and other influential people in the industry. Even though I learned quite a few of these things from television, the internet, and in classes I still learned a thing or two.

I only have one complaint. The pacing of the got a little weird when they got to the more modern gaming consoles. As soon as they talked about the Playstation one felt rather rushed. They seemed to fail to talk about major tittles on the that console. Yet they focused a little too much on Grand Theft Auto 3.

Unfortunately my mother passed out before the show was over. I know she must have been really tired but I still am a bit disappointed. When she went of to counting sheep was when they were talking about Shigero Miyamoto. I thought she would be a little interested since she used play Super Nintendo when I was a kid.

Life, &$@#, and Gaming

2007-09-25T19:26:00.000-04:00

For those of you who don't know me, I'm pretty much a shut-in and don't go out much during the summer (or ever). Last summer I tried my hand with online dating scene. What does this have to video games you might ask? Well, two of the sites that I was apart of were specific to gamers. The two sites that I used were Gaming Passions and Gamer Dating Network. Also I would like to talk about a few of my follies on the infamous Second Life. What an adventure indeed. I met some really interesting people during those few months. Some of them were nice and other's were too nice and not so nice. All I can say this was very interesting indeed.

Let me start off Gaming Passions. It could be a really fantastic dating site if it was managed more (or at all) properly. That site is one most haphazard places I've been to. It has the basics of what a gaming site should be but drops the ball. They have the people but almost literally no way for the people can connect with each other. It's like here are the people, now have at it. They have forums, and a chat room. If people actually participated in these things the site would be lively.

The second site that I used was Gamer Dating Network. The one thing that comes to mind with this site is bland. Unless you have a paid subscription you have no other way of getting in contact with anyone else other than "winking". There as nothing special about this site at all.

Alas, all was not lost. I did strike "gold" with this one guy from Gaming Passions. It was an long distance fling. Hey looked Sigfried from Soul Calibur. I was surprised with this guy. I randomly "smooched" him and he smooched me back. To be honest I didn't expect even that then out of the blue he emailed me. We emailed each other back and forth and things were cute. Then we moved onto a faster method of communication of AIM. We continued to talk and things seemed to be going okay. I even went out and purchased a web cam so I could see him "face to face". If you know Murphy's Law then you can guess what happened next. After that things started to go down hill...fast. All of a sudden he starts acting strange and after that strait up ignoring me. I'm a big girl. If you think I'm too clingy or don't think things will work out then just say so.

Last but not least I would like to talk about Second Life. I just want to set the record strait. I am not a furry! I am a neko! There is a HUGE difference! Now that is past us let us begin. I originally went on SL because my professor did a lecture on online worlds. We all know that SL has it's share of controversy but it's a pretty interesting experience once you get past the n00bs and the griefers. I've had the pleasure of getting to know allot of interesting people. That place was the closest thing I've had to "real" dating ever in all my 20 years.

One thing that I found amusing is that allot of people (myself including to some extent) assume that the SL avatars are exactly how people look like in real life. There was this one guy who came up to me and asked if I looked as sexy as my avatar in rl. I told him strait up that I'm BBW. He got all disgusted and started cussing me out.

Most of the guys were really sweet. The one thing that I noticed with quite a few men I was with is that they were very possessive of me. There was this one particular guy who was very aggressive and would demand that I see him every day. He would try to double talk me as well. The dude must have thought I was stupid or something. I finally had to brake it off with him for good.

This was quite the learning experience for me. I found out allot about people and myself as well. I realized that , just maybe, I might cursed. It seems like the only people of the male species that are into me are complete pricks looking for victims or 40 somethings (aka older complete pricks looking for victims). I know I'm not prettiest girl in the world but that is plain depressing.

In the end...I rather have dolls than men.

Coming Close To History

2007-09-24T03:24:00.000-04:00

Every standard controller Nintendo has every made

Atari 2600 next to the Nintendo Wii. This just blows my mind away!

I just really like this setup.

This is so awesome!

My roommate went to AWA (Anime Weekend Atlanta) this weekend. I must say having the room all to myself was quite nice and yet a bit lonely. I had gone back to my dorm room after dinner. Upon entering I noticed my ABJD Kyle was laying on my bed. My roommate had taken him along with her to find him a suitable blonde wig. When I noticed Kyle was back I realized that my roommate was back.

What does this have to do with video games you ask? Well on my search for my roommate I decided to see if she was at her friend's room. I didn't find my roommate or her friend but I did happen to notice one of my friends in her friend's roommate's boyfriend's room. I originally came barged in to say hi to my friend when I got distracted.

This dude has almost every game system ever invented. The dude has every standard controller Nintendo has released. He even has an Atari 2600. I've only that system in books or on the internet. I was at utter aw being within such close proximity. Ironically, it was right next to the Nintendo Wii. Seeing old school and new school next to each other is quite a sight to behold. This really made my day!

Another Dude Dies From Over Gaming

2007-09-17T23:12:00.000-04:00

I was going through my tri-daily browse of Kotaku when I came across this article. Apparently a man in his 30's died at an internet cafe in China from playing nonstop for three days playing an online video game. This isn't the first time someone has died from nonstop online gaming. I went to the original article at FoxNews.com. Unfortunately the game he was playing was not released in the news story.

It's good to see Darwinism in action. Maybe it's because empathy being deteriorated away from playing too many violent video games. I for one can understand video games as addictive. I am a huge shut-in. Even so, I was graced with the common sense (not alot of it) to get up and do something else or go outside my room. I don't know what the man's health was or what was going in his life prior to his death, but still.

Children + Violenent Media = Bad

2007-09-16T23:14:00.000-04:00

I was on Blackboard getting a glimpse of what to expect on my trip to the library for Psychology class tomorrow. After a quick scan I came across the APA website. I did some random clicking on the site and stumbled upon this article about Children and Media. Basically, the article talks about exposer to violent media makes children aggressive. This is by no way braking news, but it's an interesting read none the less.

I for one am for preventing excessively violent and sexual video games and such media out of the hands of impressionable children. Yet, whenever I read articles and studies about this subject it makes me wonder. How old were the children in the study? What were the ESRB ratings of these games? Also were these children capable of distinguishing reality from fantasy?

Bobby Time For Bed!

2007-09-05T02:39:00.000-04:00

I was doing my daily read at Kotaku and came across this article. Basically what it says that Microsoft is going to have an update for their game console, X-Box 360, that will allow parents to set time limits on their children's game play in the fall. Once the player exceeds the time limit the console will cut off.

If you been around kids or was one yourself, you know that they are sneaky little bastards. Even when you set up rules they are going to find a way to get around them without you knowing. Now when mom says an hour worth of game time it means an hour worth of game time. I for one think this is a great idea...but so is the V-Chip.

Great technology, but most likely it will go unused. Alot (not all) of adults I know aren't very tech savvy. I know a few that are terrified of touching a computer. Most of the time parents don't even know what they're purchasing their kids. From cell phones, game consoles, and MP3 players most of them have no clue. The thing could set of nuclear war heads for heaven's sake. All they know is that it will make their little brats shut up. Unfortunately, some parents (not all) just can't be bothered.

In order for this to be affective, and not go the way of the PS2 password, there needs to be plenty of advertising on this in order for parents to know. Even then it's left to fate if parents will use this technology or not

OH NO, NOT THE RACE CARD!!!

2007-08-01T12:09:00.000-04:00

If you've played Capcom's survival horror game Resident Evil you will know that the premise of the game is about killing zombies and the such. But there was one thing that stuck out about the undead themselves. Most of the zombies were white. From RE 1-3 you got to 'kill' (zombies are already dead) zombies in the hell hole known as Raccoon City. RE 4 spiced things up and took you from the city to some Spanish speaking country and the people arn't really dead. All is good.

Then I saw the trailer for RE 5. Oh holly hell, that looked amazing. The textures on the models look so amazing. It's almost as if there were real roting infected zombies. Well this is where the problem starts. As far as the trailer shows all the zombies are black. It doesn't help that the main protagonist is a white guy. When I noticed this I knew this won't end up good. Finally it hit the fan yesterday.

When I was doing my daily run on Kotaku.com I came across this article. Apparently this woman, Kym Platt, says that the game is marketed to children and will stir up violence against black people. As you can imagine this caused a huge uproar on Kotaku and her personal blog (which she closed comments off). It's sad when people like this woman really degrade themselves by pulling out the race card.

Right off the bat you can tell this woman isn't familiar with video games. I bet all she saw was the trailer that depicted some white guy gunning down a bunch of black people. Most likely than not, she hasn't even heard of the series before this title.

Also what is made clear by this woman's statement is that she has clearly never heard of the ESRB. The Resident Evil series has always been an "M" rated game. Anyone who is familiar with the game rating system knows that "M" rated games are for people 17 and older. If a young child does get a hold of this then most likely their parents purchased the game for them.

As an Afro-American female who's parents are from Caribbean I think RE5 is a great step forward. I think it's great that Capcom choosing this setting. The whole premis of zombies originated in Caribbean folkore and cuture. It brings zombies back to their origin.

This comment in reply to the backlash really sent my blood boiling.
"Yes… I am more comfortable with the zombies being white. In fact, ALL zombies should be white from this day forth."

People like this really put our race to shame. I for one can feel that black people can be as racist as white people. Dude, it's just a game.

Yay For Bloging

2007-07-17T15:20:00.000-04:00

Finally my "professional" gamer blog is up. Now I can openly rant about games, their affect on socioty, and the industry. I went to GDX last April and someone said that it is very imprtant if you want to go into an industry to have a professional blog. Three months later, here it is.