Been busy with life as of lately, but I figured I'd sit down and type up what I've been playing in the time that I've had.

My PSP was recently brought back out after hiding away for a long time. I decided to give Patapon another try. I was in love with the game, became stuck at a part and never picked it up. With Patapon 2 out and the third coming out in December, I decided to try the game again.

Only I found out those cute little beats that you memorize are extremely hard to pick back up after not playing for about a year! So I restarted and played the game from the start. I do love this game and look forward to actually putting the time towards beating it.

This has really been the time of hand held games for me lately. I started playing The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, after having it forever but never giving it the proper attention. A few dungeons in and since I've started playing it, my roommate also picked up her copy and has also been playing. Which is great because we play off each other when we get stuck. Works well for us.

And after ALL that, I've start to play Pokemon SoulSilver Version, been enjoyable so far. I like that it goes back to the first 250 (is that right?) pokemon. While this isn't the orginal 151 (right?), it's better than having all those extra ones I've never even heard of. A few Gyms in and really it just feels like a newer version of the gold and silver I'm used to, which is fine with me.

Off to play more Patapon, I really should update and play something more new and relevant, but whatever.

I apologize to start for the lack of updates on this blog, I had a very close death in the family and was away for a few days and really was not up to updating my blog. But I'm back and still trying to get back into the swing of things. While I was gone some major things have happened in the World of Warcraft and in my own world, while playing World of Warcraft.

Patch 3.3.5 has dropped, though with Ruby Sanctum soon to follow, we now have our new Vote To Kick up and running and the Real ID is in place. There are a lot of mixed feelings about Real ID, but I like it. I am one of those people, and I'm sure there are a ton of us, who has a bunch of friends who play WoW but none of those friends are on the same server. This is a way for me to connect with my IRL friends even if we are on different servers. It has to be stressed that this is just for that, only real life friends who you can trust, because you are giving out your email address that is linked to the account, which could make it very easy for hackers to compromise your account. Speaking of hackers...

The hell I've been through lately with my WoW account.

My roommates and I have a computer that is kind of free for anyone to use and it's not a bad computer at all, thing is, I'm pretty sure we HAD a keylogger on it. My account was hacked and all of my mains items were stolen, along with my gold. So I did what I was supposed to do, contacted a Blizzard Rep in game, got everything sorted out, changed my password and then began to wait for the 8-11 day reset on my account.

Then it happened again a few days later, having only ever logged on to that computer with my WoW account, I cleaned up that computer and called Blizzard (the hacker had stuck an Authenticator on the account), this time I decided to cancel the account until I could get an authenticator. Which is probably a blessing in disguise, as I haven't had work in nearly a month and my money is running short.

So now I am without WoW for the time being, basically until I get another job lined up and I'm not worrying about money so much. Then I'll buy an authenticator and then I'll start my World of Warcraft account back up and I'll be back in business. I must say though, for as much as having your account hacked sucks, Blizzard has been nothing but a pleasure to work with to get everything straightened out. I hate having to deal with any sort of customer service, but theirs was amazing to work with.

So yes, that has been my crazy ass life and I really just want everything to settle down.

Xbox 360 Slim

Let me start off with saying, this thing is beautiful. It's light weight and so quiet. After a little problem over remembering what my email and password was for my Live account I was on my way to transferring everything over from my puny little 20gig to my brand new 250gig. Which is awesome, since I was down to 2gigs after deleting everything I could bare to part with.

The eject button and power button take the slightest touch to get the button to react and the eject beeps when it is pulling the disc in an out. The system came with a headset too, which was awesome since I had been using my roommates after my (at the time) puppy destroyed mine.

The controller is actually different than the other black controllers released before, it has the same shiny look to it and the analog stick is darker. The whole thing is just beautiful.

I got a really great deal on the whole thing, I traded in my old Xbox with the Wireless Adapter and got $170 after I traded in the Hard Drive, this is just a deal GameStop has going on for people who are trading in toward the purchase of the slim Xbox. I traded in a bunch of games I don't play any more too and brought the price of the new system down considerably.

Luckily, my roommates have a transfer cable so moving everything over wasn't a problem either.

Anyone else pick up the new system? What's your thoughts on this sexy little beast of a game system?

After thoughts of E3 2010

Overall, I think this had to be one of the best E3s in a long while. I didn't get tired of listening to graphs by Reggie at the Nintendo Press Conference, like I did at last years event. A bunch of exciting things are coming out this holiday season or next year. Here are a few I'm excited about.

• Rock Band 3
• Portal 2
• Kirby Epic Yarn
• Xcon
• Star Wars MMORPG
• Professor Layton 
• Kinect
• N3DS

I'm sure there are more I am forgetting, but in general, I'll need to be saving up to keep up with everything I'll be wanting to buy this coming year.

Also, I'm totally trading in my Xbox on Friday to get the new Slim Xbox, I'll be sure to update with thoughts on this new system.

E3 Nintendo "Spotlight"

With day 2 starting, we have the headliners back to back. Nintendo and Sony. First to bat, Nintendo with all the new information on the 3DS and Zelda.

• The Legend of Zelda, Skyward Sword - Coming right out of the starting lane with the one everyone has been looking forward to, Zelda for the Wii. We are shown a short trailer for the game and then a live demo. Nintendo had a few problems with the controllers doing what they wanted to. We see that Nintendo is going full force with the Motion Plus, now your Wii Remote and Nun-chuck are your sword and shield in the game for Link. The showed off the new slingshot skills, the use of a whip and a beetle that scope out ahead of you and pick up items. It's still in early development. I wouldn't expect to see this released until Holiday season of 2011.

• NBA Jam - Not much but a blurb was said about this game. Not sure if it's going to be a revamp of the original or a new one altogether.

• Mario Sports Mix - Mario is venturing to more sports this Spring 2011 with volleyball, dodgeball, basketball, hockey.

• Wii Party - New party game that uses your Miis. Basically this looks a lot like a Mario party game but for the Miis. With over 70 games you will be able 

• Just Dance 2 - New moves, new music and up to 8 players. The sequel to the successful dancing game for the Wii. 

• Golden Sun, Dark Dawn- After many years of nothing, the Golden Sun story is back and for the Nintendo DS. Game play looks beautiful and fully uses both screens to tell this story of the fan favorite RPG.

• Goldeneye - A revamped version of Goldeneye for the Wii. Something to really look forward too, coming out this November.

• Disney's Epic Mickey - You play in Wasteland, a land of forgotten theme park rides and characters. The main game mechanic is derived from erasing and creating, using paint and paint thinner. Players change the game world and doing so changes the game play. Characters talk to you differently on how you play, whether you defeat an enemy or change them to good. A mix of platform, adventure and RPG game style. The live demo plays through the world of Steam Boat Willie, which is the episode short that introduced Mickey to the world. The art of the movie scenes looks gorgeous in this game.

• Kirby Epic Yarn - An adorable game that uses a similar side scrolling style that we saw in Paper Mario. You use the world around Kirby to zipper, pull and string your way through levels. This game has a release date of this fall.

• Dragon Quest Live -  Already released in Japan, this wildly popular game is going to our shores in 26 days, July 11th, with online play and the game goes on after you shut your DS. They did a shout-out to a player in Japan who had logged over 150 hours already in the game.

• Metroid Other M - Another Metroid game to be released for the Wii and created by Ninja Team, who brought us Ninja Gaiden. Samus returns on August 31st. 

• Donkey Kong Country Returns - A new Donkey is coming out this Holiday and it looks to be a keeper. The game is back to it's roots, being an awesome side scrolling, rail riding, banana catching game. Music sounds amazing and true to the game.

• Nintendo 3DS - Finally, what we have been waiting for, Nintendo DS using 3D technology without the use of the glasses. A technology that's been around for a short time but hasn't been used. You'll be able to choose the degree of 3D power that the hand held puts out, all the way to turning it off altogether. Suprisingly, the DS has been out for 6 years, with 4 different DS styles. The DS, DS lite, DSi and DS XL and now the 3DS. The new hand held has a sliding circular analog pad above the D-Pad. The 3DS will have camera functionality, the DS will have two camera lenses on the outside which is suppose to be able to take 3D pictures. The DS demos will be showing off 3D movies on the DS, but this might not turn out to be an actual function for the released system. The new DS will have a different way of talking to other DSs. Being able to somehow communicate even when you change games. 

• Kid Icarus, Uprising - A game designed specifically for the 3D function of the new DS. Kid Icarus is back in this beautiful 3D game. With a release of Coming Soon. 

• Nintendogs & Cats - The DS will now have it's crazily popular game released again for the 3D function and bringing along furry cats for the party.

So with that, about a hundred models entered the floor with strapped on N3DSs and went out to show everyone the new technology. Something to look forward to, I wish there was a release date. That's this years Nintendo Press Conference, I think they took the cake with this one. Sony has a lot to stand up to now.

E3 Ubisoft | Games You Can Feel

The room goes dark and we watch 10 minutes of a man playing a trippy game for the Xbox using the Kinect. G4 then screwed it up for a bit (no wonder Microsoft jumped the ship with Spike TV), I'm guessing the game is called Child of Eden though. Then I was happy to see Joel McHale (of The Soup) hosting the Ubisoft Press conference.  After that we were back on track with game demos!

• Assassins Creed, Brotherhood- With a November 16th release date, we are ready for another Assassins Creed game. A beautiful trailer showcasing what you would expect for this game. Auditore is back and is still quite the ladies man. The demo shows your Villa under attack and you escaping on horseback through your crumbling village. Switching over to a cannon attack, you try to hold your villa. The game looks beautiful with far off detail of the land around you. Then before you know if you are in sword to sword combat all in a matter of a few minutes of game play. This game boasts many different game mechanics and even more interesting ways to assassinate your enemies.   

• Shaun White Skateboarding- Move over Tony Hawk, Shaun White is back again this year to show off his new game, and he's moving into your turf. Skateboarding.  Shaun White's third game takes to the streets to show off all the new moves. The demo begins with a slightly creepy dead and void black and white world. As you skate through town, you bring color to the world. Though, I thought this game was already made... Super Mario Sunshine or even The Blob. Ignoring that, you add life back to the dead world and transform the world around you. Creating rails, skating down through the subways, making trees become full and colorful with life. I find it a strange way of playing, the idea of building the rails and ramps as you go through and ride on them. 

• Battle Tag - Something different than anything else I've seen today, a new laser tag type game that you play with your friends that updates to your computer. You can play against each other with up to 4 Vs 4 or play using targets. Seems pretty neat, I guess price point will really be what makes this game. The game comes with two guns, two harnesses and targets and bases. 

• Innergy-  The creator with quite red hair, had Joel McHale put on a finger sensor and then went through a breathing exercise on the computer. The sensor followed his breathing pattern. The game is basically a relaxing tool in a game form. Could be cool, but looked to be in it's beginning stages, may be something to watch out for.

• Rayman Raving Rabbits, Travel In Time- This series is back again and this time back IN time. The trailer shows the rabbits going back to the stone age, pyramid building Egypt and to the pulling of the sword in the stone. Only for the Wii.

• Ghost Recon, Future Solider - A demo is shown of this new Tom Clancy game. The game looks gorgeous with sneak kills and invisible armor allowing you to get to the enemy unnoticed. The demo shows the player sneaking through an enemy beach and slowly approaching and finishing off each opponent that stands in your way through stealthy moves.

• Driver, San Fransisco - Another game in the Driver series. The trailer shows us the main character, John Tanner, a detective taking down the crime-lord Jericho. Going back to the roots, in beautiful California's San Fransisco, amazing car chases, the game goes for the 70's car chase movie feel, as it's original game was based off of.  New feature is the ability to shift from vehicle to vehicle to chase on the over 200 miles of roads. 

• Project Dust- The start of this trailer states that all of the video is made of actual in game footage. Very short video, not really giving to much information about the game other than it is a working title.

• Rayman Origins - The Rayman series is back and without the Raving Rabbits! A side scrolling flat 2D with beautiful artwork . The trailer shows that it used many different artists work to create the world you play through. Gorgeous landscapes paint the background of this game. 

• Mania Planet - This new computer game allows you to play through user made worlds of FPS, RPG and Racing.  You'll be able to play by yourself or with others in this community made gaming world.

So with this I bid everyone good night and will see you tomorrow for more updates as they happen. 

E3 EA Press Conference

Everyone was handed 3D glasses and the show began.

• Need For Speed- "Taken Back To It's Roots" Exotic cars, epic drives, hot pursuit. You can choose a career as a cop or racer. Two players show us the cop and chase mechanism to the game during this hot pursuit where the cop eventually rolls the chase car ending with a "BUSTED". Game looks like an interesting style of race game with lots of ways to compete with friends and anyone online.

• Dead Space 2-  The demo begins with the player walking through a church before a massive creature knocks the player to it's feet. As you would expect from this series, the game has creepy as hell monsters, this demo showing us hordes of tiny naked baby like creature trying to eat your face off.  With a cliffhanger ending, we are told we will know what happens at the Sony show.

• Medal Of Honor- A staggering number of players are brought on stage to play this game all together, showing off it's multi-player gaming.  October 12, 2010 release date. Beta being released June 21st.

• EA Gun Club- An online rewards club to early access to betas and exclusive guns for games. GunClub.EA.com

• Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam- An expansion pack for Battlefield Bad Company 2, to be released this holiday season.

• EA Sports MMA- EA Sports brings us a new ring fighting game with many different fighting styles from all over the world. Said to be intuitive and based off of timing rather than multi-button skills. Online play and ranking system. The game also uses a new "Live Broadcast" system, which seems to be a YouTube for the EA Sports players. Seems to be a really strange idea that is sure to bring hilarious movies. I'm not sure why anyone would actually want to see a bunch of people crap talking each other and then play a video game. Not to sure about this one EA. Some how you are supposed to get noticed and they'll have commentators talk about your smack talking game play and you can win prizes.

• EA Sports, Active 2- I'm surprised that EA is already releasing another ones of these so soon, as far as I know, it didn't do that well. But either way here's what it is. The press conference shows the game for the Wii, PS3 and Xbox. The Wii showed how it uses the wii remote controllers, the PS3 had bands to wear to see the player and the Xbox uses the kinect. Biking, boxing and lighting hand weights were shown off.

• Madden 11- We know what to expect with this game. They say it'll be easier to play and more fun. I'm not sure why this matters, because the people who play it don't want it to be easier to play, people just want updates rosters and for the game to be up to date year to year.

• Sims 3 - They want to bring Sims 3 to the consoles and stretch the world of Sims further than before. They spoke of the randomness of the lives and then played a music video following the love and loss of the Sim families. Basically the whole show was the hype up the game on consoles, which I've always hated. That's not a game that will ever work on a console. 

• Crysis 2- Though no one but the people at NASA had computers that could play the first Crysis, the sequel will not make this same mistake. Being released on the PS3 and Xbox 360, the game takes place in NY and you have to save the city from an crazy... well.... Crisis. The game looks beautiful and the game play looks entertaining. The game will also had 3D capabilities, this is one to watch for.

• Bullet Storm- I'm not sure about this game. I couldn't really get past the weird comments constantly being thrown out like "Last train out of blast town". G4 hosts have been talking this one up, so it makes me wonder if it's going to be any good or if they are just getting paid a lot to hawk it.

• Star Wars, The Old Republic- The long awaited MMORPG of the Star Wars world, chose between good and evil in this expansive world. My complaint is that, I really want to see game play for this, rather than more trailers. Still, the trailer was beautiful and gave me and my roommates lots of Ooh and Ahh moments.  Though the Lucas Arts rep stated that there would be hands on play of the game on the showroom floor. So hopefully we will see some of that coming about.

E3 Microsoft

Spike TV had full and uninterrupted Microsoft coverage for E3. This is what you may have missed.

• Call Of Duty, Black Ops- Helicopter fighting, crawling through rodent infested dirt tunnels, the game looks like not much to be excited about in my opinions. Graphics are nothing to write home about and let's face it, it's not by the main COD company that brings out the games that we love. Xbox will have early rights to the expansion DLC for the new COD game. 

• Metal Gear Solid, Rising- A new game from Kojima Productions, brings us a new game to the Metal Gear Series. Very little was actual discussed about the new game, but the trailer shows a Raiden like character slicing and dicing his way through enemies in a unique and new way. Then ending with this character slowly and precisely slicing a watermelon. Too early and too little shown to really make a decision about this game, but just by the look of it, the game looks to be something to watch for.

• Gears of War 3- We were shown a 4 player co-op play of the new Gears of War 3 game. The four gamers played through a short level, defeating a boss and getting to a safe zone. Game looks pretty decent.

• Fable 3- As my roommates and I joked, not much can really be said about this trailer as it will all be taken with a grain of salt. We are quite used to empty promises from the makers of the Fable series. Graphics look about the same as Fable 2.

• Halo Reach- Bungie bragged about it's billion hours of online play and called Reach it's biggest game yet. September Release Date as most of us already know. Trailer of the game was shown.

• Kinect- Even though the Kinect (Previously named Project Natal) actual press show happened last night (Sunday) the TV airing of it will not happen until Tuesday night on MTVs 30 minute coverage of the showcase. Microsoft did cover Kinect in their press show. Viewers are shown that Kinect reconizes the player and that with a literal Wave to the xbox, Kinect instantly knows who is waving to it and logs that player in. With another wave Kinect goes to a menu showing Facebook, Zune ,Last FM, and Netflix. The young man (Ron) showing off Kinect says the comand "Xbox" as if to wake it up and make it listen, then "Zune" to tell the Xbox to go into the Zune. Once there Ron uses his hands to choose the movie he wants and he starts to play Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland. All without the touch of a controller. The person shows off how with the command "Xbox Pause" he can immediately pause the game and as simply "Xbox Play" one can start the movie again. Then with the command "Xbox Play Music" the Xbox goes through his Zune music selections. Of course a joke about a middle age black man listening to Justin Beiber is made. 

• Video Kinect- This program uses the Kinect to video chat with anyone who is using a Windows Messanger or has a Kinect sensor. The Kinect sensor can detect your body moving and tilts and adjusts to keep you in the screen. The user showed how she could call her sister across the world (who also had a sensor) and watch a movie with her.

• ESPN On Xbox Live- If I was into sports, this would something cool. Free with a gold membership, ESPN on Xbox allows you to watch your favorite sports games in HD and answer Trivia, watch all the stats on ESPN.com and root for your favorite team. All of this without a controller, used with the kinect.

• Kinetimals- An ADORABLE little girl came out on stage and played with her cute tiger pup named Skittles. She showed off how he can play dead, jump and how searched for her when she went hiding. She rubbed him all over and played with his toys. 

• Kinect Sports- Voice commands sports and getting the crowd rowdy. When they actual got to showing of the actual game, two players jumped hurdles and raced together. Running in space and jumping. You can play such sports as Soccer, Bowling, Track & Field, Ping Pong, Boxing, and Volley Ball.

• Kinect Joy Ride- Holding an imaginary steering wheel in her hands, the player pumps her hands forward to boost her car and race through the track. Using her whole body to show the kinect sensor when to drift through turns and when she physically turned her body in a circle, her car did a 360 turn trick on a ramp.

• Kinect Adventures! - A simple game of moving your body to hit the coins and avoid the obstacles. A second person comes into the view of the sensor and the game automatically splits the screen and brings in the second gamer. While the two gamers were playing the game took fun action shots of their jumps and manuvers. Another set of gamers came on the screen to show off a boating through the rivers game where once again they were trying to reach as many coins through the path as possible. Jumping and riding on clouds, they both looked like they were getting quite the workout. You can then post these crazy photos taken instantly to Facebook.

• Your Shape, Fitness Evolved - Ubsioft brings us a work out game using the Kinect powers to move and work your way to a better you.  A gamer is brought out to try out the game. The game recognizes her removing her sweater as it watches every part of her body. The game scans her body and shows her height and the game uses this scan to make the work out fit her. You can choose a personal trainer, work out in martial arts or do gym activities. The young women begins doing knee ups with a coach, the game watches her body and places a scan of her on screen to see how her movements compare to the coaches. The game keeps a counter of how many calories you burn while playing. She then goes through a slow Tai-Chi workout, where the game tells her to concentrate on her breathing while moving through the slow movements.  I'm personally excited about this game. 

• Dance Central - Harmonix's new dance game. A dancer enter the stage and begins dancing along to the music with the in screen dancers. Where DDR used to have four arrows to move through, the screen shows a wide variety of dance moves to roll through, showing on the right side of the screen the upcoming moves. The release this holiday season. 600 moves and 90 routines. Break it down mode is shown, where the user learns the dance moves. Okay... This game I'm REALLY excited about.

• November 4th Release date in America for Kinect with 15 titles at launch. 
• Star Wars - Lucas Arts will be releasing next year a star wars game using the kinect sensor. Users will wield a light saber and fight their way through droids and fighting their favorite villains from the movies.

• 10- Another, less gimicky racing game for the Xbox. Using the kinect, you can physically walk around and check out your car, looking at the front, back, and wheels. Open up the car and look at the engine, get inside and drive off. Racing, your put your hands at 10 and 2 and go. 

• Slim Xbox 360- 250 GB HD, build in wifi and Kinect ready.  ALL FOR 299$. GOING TO BE IN STORES THIS WEEK. I'm already doing the math to figure out how I can afford to buy it as soon as it comes out.

E3 Pre-Post

Just to make sure everyone is aware, tomorrow is the first day of E3 being aired. The first live broadcast will begin at 3PM on G4 and it will live. G4, however, will not have either of the two Microsoft "Spotlights". The Project Natal preview will be on MTV and the actual Microsoft "Spotlight" will be airing on Spike TV. So make sure you are all set on times and dates for each. G4/G4.com will have complete coverage of everything else.

I've got everything on DVR and plan on watching as much as humanly possible live with my roommates. Check back for my full coverage of everything E3.

WoW Wednesdays

As Blizzard has warned us, Phishers are trying harder than ever to get our information and hack our accounts. I received this whisper while playing one of my alts.

As I received this, I had to wonder who really falls for these type of things, and I apologize in advance if you are reading thing and have fallen for something similar. I could only think of 3 groups of people who could fall for something so obvious.

The Young: The first that came to mind, would have to be the young. The little kid who plays this game and is still so naive to realize people have bad intentions in the world. They don't even understand what a phisher is or to be aware of them. What's worse, they probably won't understand what happened to their game either once it's been hacked or how to go about contacting Blizzard about getting their stuff back.

The Old: Maybe someone who falls for this is just really out of the electronic age. They are playing the game to be cool and hang out with younger members of the family. You know of these people. They vaguely understand the computer world and are enjoying playing WoW. They've heard about other people talking about Cataclysm and truly believes it's legit.


But my favorite and I'm sure it has happened.

The Stupid Significant Other: The girlfriend or boyfriend that you share an account with, trying to get them into playing WoW. They are minding their own business when suddenly a whisper like such comes around and they think; "OH! I remember my bf/gf was talking about how excited they were to play Cataclysm! I should totally go to this website and sign them up!" :( How terrible.

If something like this has happened to you, I'd love to hear about it. I want to hear stories about blatant phishers actually getting peoples information. I've received whispers, in-game mail, seen things in /2 and I'm sure more attempts I can't even remember. Or if you've just got a really good story in general about phishing, feel free to share.

Something neat I found online. I'll admit, I'm a terrible person who loves my monthly Cosmo Magazine... and my Cosmo radio on the satellite radio.

Plus, I would totally want to know what the "3 Stances that will drive your boyfriend WILD" are.

Kind of really wish this was real.

Personal Update

Due to space arrangements at my roommates old gaming location, this Friday I will be adding yet another gaming session at my house. Not one I will be playing in (at least probably not, due to erratic work schedule) but I will probably be around for most of it. They will be playing Pathfinder, which is table top game that uses D&D 3.5 rules.

Work has been extremely light (basically non-existent) so I have taken to playing Soul Calibur 4 for the Xbox 360. I'll admit, I'm a Kilik lover. I'm the queen of knocking people off their feet and eventually getting a Ring Out on my opponent. Which explains why I'm stuck on the Ascending Tower level where the computer has Ring Out S. Damn.

Been lightly playing online, but I get frustrated with the lag cheaters and people who are in the 200s. Seriously. How long have you been playing this game that you have a rating of 200+?!

Just a short update for today. Nothing really interesting to report.

E3 Excitement

I don't know about any of you out there, but I'm extremely excited about E3 2010 this year. But let's face it, I'm known for getting excited about a lot of things (like getting mail that isn't bills or my dog doing her business in the first few minutes of walking her in the mornings). With this years E3 in less than a week, my DVR is set for both Spike and G4's coverage, and I'm ready.

The one thing I'm craving more of and have been since it's reveal at E3 2009, is Project Natal. I have a sad, sickening feeling that once released, it'll feel gimmicky and not work as well as advertised, but I really hope it proves me wrong and turns out to be just as cool as it seems. I'll admit it. I LOVED Hey, You Pikachu!. When I bought that game, I thought it was the most amazing thing in the world. And that was only voice recognition, and not even done that well!  I wanna feel that way about Project Natal. I was never impressed with the Sony's "Eye", having tried it on both the PS2 and PS3 for various games. I'm pleased that, rather than staying with the typical 5 year life expectancy of a gaming console, Microsoft has stated that they intend to keep with the 360 into 2015 and Project Natal is a big key in that. Project Natal is supposedly capable of identifying individual fingers. INDIVIDUAL FINGERS! Having heard so little about Project Natal through 2009, Microsoft sent out STD fliers (that's Save The Date) for the "World Premiere 'Project Natal' for the Xbox 360 Experience" on Sunday, June 13. I can't wait. Please don't let me down, Microsoft.

Some other topics I look forward to seeing;

• Nintendo's 3D DS (N3DS)
• Sony Motion Senser
• Playstation Network + (Paid Subscription PSN)

 So who is going to take the show this year? What else do these companies and others have under their sleeves this year? What is going to make me foam and the mouth and squeal? I can't wait to find out.

Dusting Off The Nintendo 64

I was cleaning through the house today (every once in a while I freak out and have to clean EVERYTHING) and found a box of my old N64 games. I had brought my N64 console with me from my parents house around Christmas time, but I hadn't really done anything with it. So today I dusted the whole thing off (it REALLY needed it) and popped in a few of my favorite games. I love nostalgia.

First I popped in my Banjo-Kazooie, which I didn't even think I owned. I was really close to buying it off of the Xbox Network ever since Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts came out (Which by the way I STILL haven't even tried, but I'd really like to). I had remarked to one of my friends, when I told him I had hooked up the old N64, how back when I first got my Nintendo 64 I thought it had the most AMAZING graphics ever. Now, it just looks pitiful on my 32" flat screen. But I still love it.

After going through a hour or so I decided, I REALLY miss my Yoshi's Story. I LOVED that game so much. I remember how happy I was when I first beat that game. How the pink Yoshi was always my favorite and how mad I'd get when I'd lose that color. I forgot how much fun having the Yoshi's smell out fruits and hidden prizes in the ground. The cute little songs that the Yoshi's would sing and the grunts they made when trying to stay airborne. Dear God, I freaking loved that game.

The last game I put in for today, was such a guilty pleasure of mine. Pokemon Snap. Remember when this first came out and you could take your cartridge to blockbuster and get your pictures printed out onto sticker paper? I remember going online and finding all the secret ways to get Pokemon to come out of their hiding and how to make them pose the best. I was one of those kids when I was younger, I was obsessed with Pokemon to begin with. But really, who wasn't?

So today was a good day. I got a lot of cleaning done around the house and I got to enjoy some retro gaming and stare at horribly pixelated graphics on my big beautiful TV. I could talk for hours about how much I loved my N64. It's not even that the N64 was my first console. Both of my parents played video games (they had me when they were pretty young) so I had an original Gameboy and the NES, but the N64 was really MY system. The console I bought games for with the money I saved up babysitting the local kids. It'll always hold a special place for me.

Thoughts on "In A Wicked Age"

I had a chance last Sunday to play a one-off of the table top game "In A Wicked Age" by Vincent Baker and published by Lumpley Games. Vincent Baker also brought us Dogs in the Vineyard, which is also an awesome little gem in the RPG world. Not by any means is this a new game, it's release was back in 2007 and you can purchase this short 36 page game by PDF (10$) or in Print (12$). Don't let the shortness of this game deter you, this is a fun and quick game. The game was made to be played and finished in a single session, making this the perfect one off for days when everything didn't come together as planned for your normal game.


The great thing about In A Wicked Age, is that everything is created when you start playing. No long and complicated character creation and the DM doesn't even have to have an adventure created before you start. It's all in the cards, as they say. But that's really how we started. My DM had everyone choose a card at random and then choose one of the 4 Oracles in the game (I had chosen Blood & Sex, fitting right?). Those cards and the choice of which Oracle created the whole game. It created our characters, the NPCs, the adventure, but most importantly the conflicts.

Once fate chose our story we had a nice little party. The setting of In A Wicked Age is told by the book to be in resemblance of the worlds of Conan the Barbarian or The Jungle Book. Think, pre-gun and semi-medieval. Our story began with the problem of a plague striking our land. The characters being, a wounded solider who does not know he has the plague, a plague doctor, a scholar who is trying to find a cure for the plague and me, the camp follower.

The character creation in this game is extremely easy to do and I actually enjoyed not having to start from scratch. All that was needed from the players was to choose what they saw was most important and least important for their character. The most important trait was given a D12 and the lowest a D4. My character had her highest trait has "For Love", I'll explain what all this means in a minute.

Then we had to choose goals for our characters. This is what made this game so much fun and unique. Our goals had to be something that could be achieved in a short amount of time (remember this is meant to be a quick one-off) and reflected the character. Jezebel, (I know, everyone in the party was choosing extremely none creative names, so whatever) the camp follower, was playing nurse at the camp where everyone was at. So I made that one of my goals. I wanted to leave the whoring world behind me and become a nurse! Though I made her to be terrible at taking care of sick plague victims. Her other goal, was to get the Solider to fall in love with her.

This made our first conflict and quite the fun triangle. See, the Solider Player Character (his name was Leon) had a goal to win over the Inn Keeper. The reason the goals are what really make this game, is the goals usually create conflict and also make characters that are not necessarily protagonists.

One last thing to the character sheets were to make something special for our character. Some special trait that could help us in battle. I chose the ability to pout, really damn well. Once again, it was totally not me being creative. I've just been playing way to much My World My Way (which I totally plan on reviewing, because damn that game has been an awful lot of fun). Jezebel used this awesome skill of pouting to get her way in the game, she used it to convince the inn keeper to not pursue Leon romantically and also to get the Academic character to take her under his wing and teach her everything he could about the medical world.

The battles in this game could come up from anything. If people had conflicting ideas, it would start a battle of rolling to see who got their way. At the start of battles, one would choose which traits to use (and their by which dice they would be rolling). In basic term, who ever rolled better got their way. This was a fun way to solve disputes and livened up the game. When someone would lose, the winner got to choose what happened to the opponent, within reason. A normal loss resulted in a loss of a dice in one trait, as in if your For Love trait had a D10, it would now be a D8.

By the end of our game, we found out who was poisoning everyone in our camp with the plague, I was able to begin my training as a nurse, the cure was found. But poor Leon was not able to get the love of his life. In all it took us about 5 hours to complete and everyone agreed they enjoyed the game and would be something to consider again if we needed a one-off.

In conclusion, I would again, recommend this to a group of players who are good at role playing and acting out characters, since everything is created at the start of the game. A group with a strong ability to build characters at a glance will make this game all around more fun. In A Wicked Age is perfect for a short campaign, played over the course of a single gaming session. So the next time you need a quick break in your normal session or transitioning from game to game, try out In A Wicked Age.

Review of My World, My Way

My World My Way is a Fantasy RPG for the Nintendo DS that was released back in Feb 09'. This game was quite the sleeper gem and has been well reviewed for it's unusual game mechanic, the ability to pout to get your way.

That mechanic alone was what got me to pick up a copy of the game. In My World, My Way, you play a spoiled, sheltered Princess who has all the she could ever want, but one day a handsome adventurer turns down her advances for love. After being told she is nothing but a spoiled girl, she sets out to become a hero and win his love.

Going from town to town, you do tasks for the people and become stronger and stronger. Pouting to alter the game in ways of the terrain (to get certain monsters to attack), pouting to go first in battles, or pouting to not lose gold or exp when you eventually run out of HP. This game incorporates pouting into ever situation. The snooty and crass princess goes through deserts, dungeons and pouts to get dancing meadows and cemeteries inhabited by spooky ghosts.

My World, My Way is a fun and easy RPG to pick up, it appeals to the female gamers out there but still has a good mechanic to win over avid gamers. The game is whimsical and has a lot of comedic moments, addictive in nature, but still slightly repetitive in combat. The use of the duel screen is used properly for this RPG and the choice to use to stylus or the buttons is a nice plus. I recommend this as the perfect gift if you want to get a girl into RPGs but I'm sure you'll have a hard time keeping you own hands off the DS with this game.

My New Love

Today I was able to come home, change into something comfortable, break into a new pint of Ben & Jerry's, Cookies & Cream (something I need to make sure does not become a habit) and choose from hundreds of shows and or movies. And how?

F-ing Netflix. That's how.

If you haven't tried this out, you are missing out. About a year ago, Microsoft made an amazing jump in the way we could use out Xbox 360s. They and Netflix joined forces to give us something that would make anyone contemplate canceling their plan with any cable provider. You can now watch anything on the Netflix selection that is Instant Watch through your Xbox.

This service has been provided by buying a separate box from Xbox for about $100 as I last remember it, but now you can do it for as little as $8.00 and a Gold Live account.

Soon after Sony jumped on this little gem and brought Netflix to their PS3 and shortly after that (and to my suprise) Nintendo brought this service to their Wii.

Why is Netflix on our consoles so effing awesome? After having rolled through all the seasons of Law & Order SVU, I've been able to watch King of the Hill from start to finish, Buffy, and just this past few weeks, Comedy Central has unloaded their best. I'm talking, Reno 911, The Sarah Silverman Show, Ren & Stimpy, Crank Yankers and South Park.

As if that wasn't enough for less than $10 a month, the documentaries are something that has won me over. I've never been one to sit and watch documentary after documentary, but Netflix has giving me an all new love for the low budget documentaries. Everything from how corn is in basically everything we eat, in one way or another, to the story of the Donkey Kong World Champion and those who try to take away his title. I've been privileged to see my fair share of crazy ultra religious nut-jobs and  documentaries about what happens to those who die and leave no one behind.

Netflix has a trial session that I think everyone should give a chance if they haven't yet. If you are like me, you'll have more shows waiting on your queue then you will ever have the time to watch. The list of shows and movies to choose from grows all the time and Netflix even has a section where it finds things you might be interested by how you rate other shows.

So if you haven't yet, give it a shot. It's well worth the money and you'll wonder why you even bother having cable anymore.

GameCrush.com

I recently found through reading a Cracked article about a new website called Game Crush. Game Crush is still in it's beta stages and still has a few bugs, but here's what it is.

Game Crush has two groups, the play dates and players. Players can log on and find play dates to play a number of video games to play with for a price. Right now there are only 4 Xbox 360 games and a number of classic online flash games to play. The flash games allow the player to video chat with the play date as well. The website intends to allow PS3, Wii and even WoW dates along with more than just the four starting Xbox games. Players pay by the minute for the dates and afterward can leave tips or favorite the play date.

As stated the site is in it's Beta stages, the site at times feels clunky and the search function isn't as complete as some might like. The game choice is sparse, and I'd even go as far as to say outdated, I don't know many people who still play GTA4 online. 

I've signed up and try the Beta as a play date so feel free to find me, EpicRareFemale and hit me up for a game or two. My experience as a play date has been lacking. I find that many of the players are looking for this site to be an adult website with playing video games as the minor. The players I have spoken to just wanted to chat and not actually play games. Oh, well. I love the idea of being paid to play video games, I just hope they work out the bugs and allow more fun.

I've also joined a guild on WoW with a bunch of the other play dates. We play on the server Trollbane and are in the guild GameCrush, free publicity, right?

If you've tried out GameCrush, feel free to tell me your thoughts. As a player or a play date. I lurk the forums on the site occasionally too and I feel like there are a lot of different opinions of the site so far.

WoW Wednesdays

WoW Wednesdays are the one day of the week I'm allowing myself to write about WoW. I've decided to use these Wednesdays as a palate cleanser from our downtime on Tuesdays (and it will totally give me something to do when WoW is down for maintenance). I'm going to give you an update on the week behind us. News on updates, patch releases, and just anything exciting that happened.

This week was a busy one, lots of blue posts on the WoW forums for us. I'm going to start off at bat with some not so fun news.

With the up coming release of Patch 3.5.5, everyone is awaiting the highly anticipated new level 80 dungeon, Ruby Sanctum. This may not be the case though, says the blues. Zarhym, a Blizzard rep states:

"Due to the fact that we will be delaying the release of patch 3.3.5 in Europe, Korea and Taiwan in order to ensure the patch process in all regions is as smooth as possible, the Ruby Sanctum will not immediately be available on North American realms upon the release of the patch. Once patch 3.3.5 has been released in North America and we are confident about a time when we can open up Ruby Sanctum, we will provide an update here on the forums."

 An update for anyone who has not been previously informed, Ruby Sanctum is the newest dungeon and the one that kicks off the storyline to be revealed in Cataclysm. This raid will be like most in that you'll be able to run it as a 10 man or 25 man on either Normal or Heroic. Ruby Sanctum has been up on the play testing realms for a short while now if you can't wait for it's official release.

Patch 3.5.5 will be an interesting one as it will greatly effect many of the ways players socialize in the game. Something I'm excited about is new Battle.Net System. This new system will basically allow players to know when their real life friends are online, without being on the same server. And since Battle.Net is used for all Blizzard's online games, you'll be able to be on WoW and see your friend playing his game on Starcraft. The huge caution with this release is that you use this with people you actually know. You'll be giving out your Battle.Net email for people to find you which could make it easy for someone to hack your account. If you are like me, then you probably have a few character alts on servers with friends. I'm hoping this new system will make it easier for me to level alts on servers with friends. I'll be able to see a certain friend is online and switch over to that server and play with them and level that character.

Other new chat features with Patch 3.5.5 is that you'll be able to take chats out of the main chat roll and have a separate tab. I like the idea of being able to have a separate tabbed chat for my whispers or even raid chat. I know I can lose whispers easily if I'm in an area with the trade channel going on.

The last thing I'd like to touch up on is more of a reminder. Tomorrow is the start of the first batch of tickets to be sold for Blizzcon 2010. The ticket sales start on June 2 at 7:00 p.m. PDT/10:00 p.m. EDT. If you can't make it to the first batch of tickets being sold, the second date is on Saturday, June 5 at 10:00 a.m. PDT/1:00 p.m. EDT. As we all know these tickets go fast and you have to be prompt and ready if you want to purchase them. Blizzcon 2010 will be taking place this year on October 22-23 in Anaheim, CA. Tickets are $150 each and as usual, for those who are unable to make it, DirectTV will be having their PayPerView option for Blizzcon for $39.95.

I sadly will be unable to make it. But there are always hopes for next year. Good luck to those buying tickets, as we all know those tickets will be gone in seconds and up on ebay for a hell of a lot more.