This last month...

I've been playing a lot more than I've been blogging even if I did promise myself that I was going to keep my blogging up. Ah well! :)

So what have I've been playing lately. Let me think...

I've got a chance to do a review of "Star Ocean: The Last Hope" for Girl Gamers UK. Check it out here. JRPGs are not really my usual style but I've actually enjoyed playing it on some level. Still not completed it even though I've put a LOT of hours into it. I have a feeling it's one of those games that go on and on. Bought a strategy guide for it the other day at Gamestation (something that I don't usually do), so I'll have a go at making my way closer to the end with some guided instructions from the other side of the sofa. From what I've read it's a game that you'll probably have to play through more than once to complete everything. And I have to complete everything - not that I'm an Xbox achievement whore or anything. ;D

We've also been playing a lot more of Gears of War 1 & 2 and Left 4 Dead. Starting to enjoy being a killer! That's a big step up from my usually puzzle adventure style. Actually really looking forward to the new map pack update for Gears which is being released in July. Never thought I'd here myself say I was looking forward to an FPS.

These last few days I've been playing Gun and I've actually managed to complete it (woohoo!) - on easy, but completed nonetheless. It's fairly quick to play through and you get a lot of achievements along the way without having to try too hard. Now I just need to play it through on Normal, Hard and Insane! Gun is probably not the best game ever released but there's something immensely satisfying about riding around on a horse looking for gold whilst shooting peoples heads off! We're going to be writing a review of Gun for Game People over this next week or so which should be fun. (My other half has just completed the game whilst I've been writing this post). I'll probably end up saying "You're messing with the wrong Hoodoo" a couple of times (AKA a lot!) whilst writing the review, but hey - it makes me laugh for some bizarre reason. It will probably drive him insane before I get tired of saying it, but that's the kind of thing he has had to put up with living with me over these last 10 years so he is used to it by now. :D

Also bought Army of Two, Halo 3 and Overlord on Friday, but not really tried them out properly yet. No doubt my next post will be about those games.

Off to play some more games now.

ttfn

Kingdom for Keflings

I downloaded A Kingdom for Keflings a while back on Xbox Arcade. I had heard someone mention it and I thought it sounded a bit like my type of game, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I finally unlocked all 12 achievements today and got my full 200 points. Yay! :) Who would have thought that walking around as a giant in a friendly little town could be so addictive? I also think the happy sounding in game music helps to put you in a good mood. Anyway - it's all very relaxing.

You play as a giant in control of a small town where you have to build buildings to unlock blueprints. These blueprints enable you to build even more buildings until you finally get your own castle and become a king. It all sounds pretty easy, and to be fair it is - but that's the true charm of the game. Every now and then it's nice to just chill out infront of the Xbox and play something that doesn't require too much concentration.

I first played the game back in February and made good progress on my way to world domination - or at least to being in charge of my own town. However (me being me) I didn't save every 10 minutes and of course the Xbox decided to crash on me. I reloaded the game only to discover that my last few hours of gaming had been completely wasted. ;( Typical! Anyway - couldn't make myself rebuild everything again straight away and after that I half forgot about the game. However - started the old save up again today and really enjoyed playing again. I also took some of my old saved up frustration out by kicking a few Keflings to achieve my Big Bully award. I even took part in a few online sessions to get my last 2 missing achievements.

Not sure how much I will be playing the game again in the near future now that I've made it all the way to the end. However I have a sneaky feeling that I might blow the dust off it again later as it is just such a cute little game and you just can't beat the experience of being a giant. :)

ttfn

Dusting off the blog

Haven't been blogging a lot lately but I'm feeling inspired again - so here I am. :)

So what's been happening since March? Well - I've been playing a lot of games, mainly on the Xbox and Wii. Never really thought I would get hooked on the Xbox being a Nintendo girl at heart, but I have. I think it's the gamepoints collecting that I'm hooked on. :) I like this extra addition to the games that give you something else to aim for other than just playing through from start to finish. It probably all stems from me being an uber badge whore in City of Heroes.

So I have been trying to learn how to become a first person shooter. I'm still rubbish though, but I guess I'm improving. I've only really tried it co-op and I have to admit that the other person on the team is probably carrying me a bit but hey - it's all just for fun. :) Still never think it will be a natural game for me to play, but I'm actually half enjoying it. The 2 games I've been trying out are Gears of War 2 and Left 4 Dead (both on the Xbox). Out of the two Gears of War 2 is my favourite so far as this is the one I've been playing the most.

I've also been playing a few other "older" games on the Xbox. Started out by playing Overlord. Didn't think that I would like this game as I prefer to be good rather than evil for some stupid reason. (Think I'll need to see a shrink about this lol). I probably play it too nicely but I can't help it - I pretend they're my Pikmins. :) Also had a go at Eternal Sonata. Feels like I've played a lot of it but I'm only just coming up to the end of chapter 2. Guess I'm not really an RPG person... It all just seems a bit slow - too much talk and not enough action, and the repetitive fighting style is boring me a bit. It's not actually a bad game and I'll probably give it another few goes before giving up on it completely.

On the adventure gamefront I've played Secret Files: Tunguska on the Wii. I actually played it all the way through which is not bad for me and I really enjoyed it. Brought back all the old memories of point-and-click adventures. Some of the puzzles are a bit easy when you're still thinking like Monkey Island, but it's a pretty good story and it's not all too obvious what you have to do next. Also currently doing another trip down memory lane on the Wii by playing Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars. Played this on the PC years ago but they have done a nice convertion to the Wii and the new addition to the beginning of the game was pretty good too. Currently only about 25% into the game, but I'm enjoying playing as these old well-known characters and I'm pretty sure this will be another one I will be playing all the way to the end.

Another game I'm enjoying at the moment on the Xbox is Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise. I just love all the little characters that you can collect. It's such a fun and cute game, and really addictive. I have a feeling I'll be playing this a lot over the next few weeks. :)

Been playing a few other games as well, but I can't think of what they are at the moment so I will catch up on them later.

Anyway, I will try to blog a bit more often - at least just to keep a record of what I've been playing. :)

ttfn

DS - Trauma Center Under The Knife

Dug out another one of our old DS games - Trauma Center Under The Knife. Never really spent a lot of time playing this game when we first bought it so I thought I would have another go.

You have just finished your internship and have to perform your first procedures as a young male doctor. The game teaches you the variuos steps that have to be performed during surgery and you of course have to do these to the best of your ability - preferably without killing any patients along the way!

The first few levels are fairly easy and I for some bizare reason quite enjoy learning how to pull pieces of glas out of someones heart. As the clock is ticking and the patients vital stats are dropping, I almost find myself getting slightly stressed! I have to say that it's not exactly the most realistic game and will probably not help you save someones life in the real world, but somehow I feel slightly more qualified to administer a Hello Kitty bandage now.

After a few chapters you discover that you have a hidden talent that allows you to slow down time so you can perform more things during your surgeries. This is where the game (at least for me) all of a sudden becomes a lot more difficult. I am currently stuck at a level where I for some reason kill my patient over and over again which is getting really annoying. I might be missing a trick here but I checked the other save games and this the very same level where I got stuck last time. Don't get me wrong - I do prefer to have to use a little bit of skills when playing games, but the jump between the previous level and the current one just seems to be ridicolous.

I will probably have another few goes at getting past this level before I give up and the game returns to the bookshelf upstairs. It will stay there collecting dust for another few years until I again forget why I stopped playing the previous time and have another go at turning into the next Dr McDreamy.

ttfn

Wii jOG [2]

Looks like the Wii jOG is being released in April and will be priced around £19.99. If only I knew someone who's birthday was in April... oh hang on - ME! :D Can't wait to actually run around as a little Lego Princess Leia.



ttfn

DS - Mystery Case Files MillionHeir

So we bought the Mystery Case Files MillionHeir a couple of weeks ago after seeing it advertised on the TV. I have to admit I had pretty high expectations after the commercial and was hoping for a cool little puzzle game.

The game has both a single player and a multi player option. I have not yet tried out the multi player option so I can't really make any comments on that. The single player option however is made up of a story mode and a quick play. Story mode again has got 3 difficulty levels - Rookie, Detective or Gumshoe. The first time I played the game I went for Detective.

You start the game one year back in time by going to a mansion belonging to Mr Phil T. Rich. You are here given some basic instructions of how the game works and one of your first jobs involves finding a detective badge that you have to clean by rubbing the stylus over the screen and blowing into the microphone. After finding a few more items the game jumps to 6 monts later - Mr Phil T. Rich disappears and you are called in to help find him.

From now on the game is broken into small chapters where you have to investigate various suspects. You do this by finding "hidden" items. You are given a list of objects to find and you scroll across the screen and click it with the stylus once you spot one of them. You usually have a couple of rooms to search through for each suspect with a list for each room. After finding the required number of items from the lists you then have to solve a final puzzle for each suspect. These vary from jigsaws, slide puzzles, memory games and spot the difference plus a few others. All of them a little bit too easy... After investigating all the suspects you are then taken to the next level which is pretty much just repeating the same technique that you have just been using. You are given a list, have to reinvestigate and have to find more objects. A couple of new games are introduced when you get to the final part of the game but these are not really that difficult either.

I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed. The game very quickly becomes a little bit repetitive and you can play through it in a few hours. I tried it again on the Gumshoe setting but this quickly becomes frustrating as you have a very limited amount of time to find the required items. If you run out of time you have to start that level over with a new list of items. I have to admit that at first the time pressure of the Gumshoe level made the game more interesting, but the novelty soon wears off when you are searching the same room for the 5th time...

I think that the whole game could have been done a lot better. I don't really mind the whole search and find scenario that you have to do over and over again, but this is where the game could be improved. A bit of a variety to how you have to investigate the different suspects would have made the whole thing a lot more interesting rather than just a repeat of itself.

I have to say that I am a bit disappointed in the whole game. I know my expectations were probably too high, but it just seems like the developers could have done SO much more with the game. I have a feeling that I will not be spending any of my hard earned cash on a Mystery Case Files 2.

Wii jOG

Just watched Jason try out the Wii jOG on the Gadgetshow and he liked it - so how bad can it be! :) Looks like great fun and gives you a chance to burn off some calories at the same time. It is SO made for the Lego games. Can't wait to try one out. Wonder when the release date is? Can't seem to find it anywhere.

Anyway - I want one :)

Blowing the dust of the DS

So my other half is in the US at the moment and I haven't really felt like playing any games this last week. Anyway - I'm getting itchy fingers now so I thought I would have a look at some of our DS games.

We haven't exactly got the biggest collection but I'm sure there will be something in there that I can play. He did of course take the best games with him when he went (Professor Layton and Zelda - Phantom Hourglas) and these are of course the ones I want to play right now! Typical woman - want what I can't have. :) Before he starts complaining - I should probably admit that I made him take them so he could try them out... ah well - I'm just going to have to try out some other ones instead.

I should really read up on some reviews so I can find some more games to buy. The problem with the DS is that loads of the games look like complete rubbish. Come on - do we really need an "America's Next Top Model" game??! I also think that about 85% of the DS games out there are released for kids. What's wrong with a good old fashioned puzzle game that actually requires you to use your brain a little bit?

Anyway - I'll have a browse through what we have got and then start playing. I'll let you know how I get on. :)

ttfn

Logo changed

So I was browsing the internet on Monday trying to find some inspiration for the logo and I went onto Deviant to have a look there. I found this great image of a girl in a penguin suit by Linistic that I thought would be perfect and he was happy to let me use it. Yay!

Messed about with the layout a little bit and found a font that I thought suited the image.

Anyway - I hope you like it. :)

Now - back to playing some more games.

ttfn

Trying out a new layout

So I am trying out a new layout. Messed about with the template a bit and created a sidebar on either side of the main text. This is the first time I have ever tried changing a blog template so please let me know if something is not working. However - from what we can tell it seems to be working ok in both Explorer and Firefox at the moment.

The colours are also a bit different but these will probably change a bit again once I create a graphic to go at the top of the page. Not too sure what to create yet, but I'm sure I will come up with something. I guess it should be something penguin and game related. ;) Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Anyway - the graphic is not urgent so it will probably have to wait for a creative weekend. I guess I will have to get the sketch pad out!

ttfn

Nintendo goes... To the Beach

Geekini! Now here is a good reason to get fit before summer. All the girls on the beach will think it's stupid and ugly, and all the guys will secretly love it.



I want one :)

ttfn

Nintendo goes... Cufflink

Flickr is a great place for pictures of all things weird and wonderful, and I have a habit of browsing the place for completely random things just for a bit of fun.

Just did a search for Nintendo cufflinks and these are some of what I found:

NES Cartridge Cufflinks by Acletras

NES Cufflinks by MrQuint15

Gameboy Cufflinks by Figerrific

Mushroom Cufflinks by Jula Julz

Triforce Cufflinks by Acletras

I know these are not Nintendo but I thought I'd throw them in anyway as they are pretty good. :)

Saturn Cufflinks by Figerrific

Pac Man Cufflinks by Artistic Flair

Also did a search on Google and found a couple more really cool ones:

Gameboy Cufflinks

Wii Controller Cufflinks

Retro Nintendo Cufflinks

ttfn

T-shirts (part 1)

So we're still trying out Kororinpa. We've been playing a bit in 2 player mode and are now trying to unlock a few more balls and also the secrets that you only get in 1 player mode.

Anyway - I thought I'd make Steven pose in some of his games t-shirts this morning. Not too sure how much he was loving the experience but hey - he's well trained. :)

As you can see there's a is a Lego Star Wars theme running through these. I for some reason keep buying them for him whenever I see a new one and I'll keep doing it until he tells me to stop. lol A couple of them are in the wash at the moment so he'll have to do another modelling session for me at a later time.

Decission made...

Kororinpa it is!

Other half finally decided on which game to start with. He pretends that a little bit of thinking went into him picking Kororinpa but I'm not so sure. Funny how it just happened to be the first one on the list... :) Anyway - Wii is powered up, game has been loaded and we're about to start.

Been a while since we tried this game out last time so I can't really remember it all that well. Have a feeling it wasn't one of our favourite games but it will be fun to have another go.

I'll post my "new" first impressions in a bit.

ttfn

Attacking the list...

So it's finally the weekened and we can do some gaming. Yay!

It's weird really 'cause in work yesterday I was thinking to myself that this week had flown and that I could have used a few more hours to finished off some of the things I am working on. However - when I look at the game consoles collecting dust next to the telly I feel that it has been so long since I've played that I'm not sure that my opposing thumbs are going to be working at their usual speed. And that would in a way be like spitting at evolution. You did know that is the REAL reason for opposing thumbs right?

Anyway - we sent a long list of all our Wii, Gamecube and Xbox games to http://www.gamepeople.co.uk and asked them which ones they wanted us to review as a couple and this is what they sent us back:

Wii:
Kororinpa
Link's Crossbow Training
Rayman Raving Rabbids
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2
Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam
Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz

Xbox:
Left 4 Dead

Gamecube:
Pikmin
Pikmin 2
Chibi-Robo!
TimeSplitters2

I have to say that I'm really looking forward to playing some of the older ones again. Been wanting to do it for ages and this is just the kick of the backside that we needed. The ones that I'm looking forward to the most are probably the Gamecube games like the 2 Pikmin ones and Chibi-Robo. Ah - the amount of fun you can have running around as a little robot cleaning the floor with a toothbrush. Chibi-Robo is also one of the games that I mainly played on my own last time and that I actually finished! :) Will be fun to play it again with my other half in our usual "taking turns" way that we tend to play in. A lot of games in this household tend to never get a chance to show us their end credits. This is mainly due to the "too many choices, not enough hours" syndrome rather than the "this game is not very good" syndrome.

We are still not 100% sure which game to start with but we'll probably pick something that is short and quick so we can get writing pretty quickly. Probably one of the Wii options but we'll see.

Anyway - I'll post an update later on once we have actually gotten started on something. :)

ttfn

So here I am...

Felt like making a blog today and thought - hey, why not? :)

So here I am feeling the urge to write something about "girls who game". We are supposed to be the rare species but we all know that this is NOT the case. Don't we? Plenty of girls love to play games however - I just don't know any! lol At least not outside the online world of "strangers".

So how did I get into gaming? I can't really remember (it get's like that at my age). I know that I've always loved puzzles, board and card games. I also remember going shopping with my parents and they bought me a handheld games console! It was orange and it was a Donkey Kong game. I even remember the store, how it looked and they way the display was set out. Yes - it did make a HUGE impression on me (and changed my life from then onwards) but to be perfectly honest the shop hasn't changed all that much since then. Anyway - that was it. I've been hooked ever since. I remember buying other similar games whenever I came across them. My parents were never all that into them. However my mum always said that she heard this weird "beep beep noise" whenever dad disappeared to the toilet and the batteries never seemed to last long either... hmmm...

Around the same time as I got the Donkey Kong game we also bought our first proper console (must have been early 80s). I can't remember the name of it at the moment but I'm sure it'll come to me at some point. It had a keyboard built into it and it had removable game cartridges. I think the first game we bought must have been PacMan. Omg! Hours of fun.

A lot later on I got my first computer and tried out a few PC games. Don't remember ever really getting totally hooked on anything. Most games that people recommended were shooting games and I've just never been all that into that style (mainly because I'm rubbish at them). I remember my uncle lending me Wolfenstein. It was probably the first 3D game I played and it used to scare me half to death whenever I opened a door and a big guy shot at me... I would love to say that I'm a much more "confident" gamer these days but fact is I still jump whenever someone jumps/shouts/shoots at me in any games... and yes - I also still try to look around corners by just moving my head. I guess I'll never learn. Ah well.

Several years later I met my other half or as he would like me to say - my better half (yeah right! We all know girls rule!). He introduced me to a different style of games. Adventure games! That was it. I had found my niche. Hours and hours was spent playing classics like Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max, Grim Fandango etc etc. Thank God for LucasArts! I've played loads of games in the same style over the years and I still look out for adventure games whenever I hear of any. Unfortunately it is getting really hard to get your hands on a good one these days. It seems that most recent point-and-click games are in the style of "need to open door", "need to find key", "just walked past key"... not much brainpower is really needed to solve this puzzle. I'm not saying that should at the same obscure level as some of the MonkeyIsland games, but a little bit of searching/thinking/combining wouldn't hurt. And btw - what's not obvious about having to combine a rubber chicken with a pulley? Jeez!

My other half had been into computers from about the day he was born or something like that. I like to call it a natural born geek. He had of course been playing games for years and probably thought I was a bit of an amateur. His chosen console at that time was the N64 and the chosen game was Goldeneye. I never really got the point of that game being a first person shooter and all, but apparently it looked great (or so I was told). I remember us buying our first game together - 1080 Snowboarding. We bought that right after we moved into our house and I think we probably spent more time playing that than decorating. Actually not much has change over these last 11 years! Omg - I need to get a life. :)

We've bought a couple of console since the N64. A PS1, PS2, Dreamcast, Gameboy Advanced, DS Lite, Gamecube, Xbox 360 and a Wii. Can't remember in which order but I think that's all of them. Never really been a huge fan of Sony (hence no PS3) but my heart skips a bit whenever my eyes catches the lovely letters that make up the word Nintendo. Not sure if it's because they were my first love or maybe just because they make the best consoles ever! In my humble opinion of course. ;) My favourite console game series is of course Zelda. Doesn't get much better than running around as Link even if Navi can get on your nerves a bit...

I would make a list of all the games we own (we tend never to get rid of any for some strange reason) but I just don't think I could cope with seeing how much money we have actually spent on this. I suppose to geeky people like us we could just call it an investment? lol

I've also had a spell of online gaming. Other half started playing this weird online game with gnomes, orces and elves etc. Not my cup of tea at all, it couldn't really sound more dull! Then one of our friends who had also started playing it said he had his own pet and he could train it! Now that kinda sounded a bit more fun so I let myself get talked into trying it out. Fast forward about a year and a half and I gave up playing WoW. Everything in between those two points is kind of a blur when I think back. It should now be mentioned that I have a "slightly" (yeah right!) addictive nature when it comes to gaming. I don't think I have EVER spent that many hours on any game before or since, and part of me hopes I never will. Before WoW I had no idea that a game could be quite so addictive. And I rocked at being a Warlock (even if I have to say so myself). However - one day I just hit a point where I thought that I needed to go cold turkey or my life would be lived online. Haven't dared to go back to it since. This was about 2 1/2 years ago and I still feel the urge to play it every now and then if I read a game review of it or see a character that looked similar to my Ellana. I have since spent a good few hours in City of Heroes. This is another great game and the people who play there seem to be slightly more mature than the gang who hangs out in Ironforge begging for money. I'll probably return to CoH again as I seem to have the ability to walk away from that a bit easier when I need to.

However - at the moment I'm hooked on playing console games and this is actually what I wanted to waffle on about in here.

My other/better half has been reading games reviews for a number of years now, both printed and online. His been following the Gamepeople http://www.gamepeople.co.uk/ for while and they game him the opportunity to do a review of Lego Batman. How cool is that! We are big fans of the Lego Games for the Wii. With him being a proper geek since forever and therefore being into StarWars (not sure that there's actually a scientific link between the two but hey) and me being Danish (and I guess therefore into Lego?). Anyway - we really enjoy the Lego Batman game and you can read his review of it here. The Gamepeople guys seemed really happy with it and have given us the opportunity to write some more stuff for them. Since we pretty much always play as a couple we will also do our reviews from a couples point of view. This does not necesarily mean that it has to be co-op/multiplayer, but there does have to be at least some sort of enjoyment for the person who's just watching or as I like to call it - is guiding.

Anyway - we're hoping to start attacking the list of games they wanted us to review over the next few days, so I'll keep you posted as we get started on it. :)