Sci Fi Jungle

Sim City Review

I purchased the new Sim City through Amazon Download.  I'd read a lot of really bad reveiws about the DRM, need to be online to play, and general hating on EA and the game.  However, I also read some reviews that talked about the urban science and algorithms behind the game and it sounded pretty interesting to me. 

I don’t generally do a lot of gaming.  My husband and kids can play stuff all day long, but short of IPhone word games, I don’t do it.  For me a game has to be really easy to play for me to spend a lot of time on it.  Maybe I am an idiot, but the controls on Guild Wars had be crying for an Advil after about 20 minutes.

I played the original Sim City a million years ago and enjoyed it, so the new one piqued my interest enough to go ahead and fork up the $60 to try it.  Even with the terrible reviews!  Even with no offline play. 

The first hurdle I had to go through was to download the Origin client.  Apparently I already had an Origin ID and even was able to guess what the password was.  Success!  I uploaded an Avatar picture and set myself to all kinds of publicly available.  I mean why not.  I am a parent – and taxpaying member of society, I don’t have much to hide.  My hubby’s friend Chris is playing so I want to be able to link up our cities.

As soon as I logged in I got an apology pop up and an offer of a free game - battlefield 3, dead space, Mass effect, Sim city 4, Plants vs zombies, Bejewelled 3,  or Need for speed.  I am going to ask hubby if he wants one of those.

Downloading the game.  Check back with me in a hour.

About an hour later I am playing the game.  I started off doing the tutorial.  It was good, and made sense.  I feel like even I can play this game.  I tried to make a city in a region already in the system but was confused so I started my own region.   Having fun with my kids – 9 year old is telling me where the controls are.  These kids are growing up with this technology – how cool.  I made a small city.  Took a break to make dinner and now I can’t get back in.  Is this the problems people are talking about or did I not save my region correctly?

Well I closed the game and came back in and it was fine.  I’ve now played for 5 hours, as the game helpfully says.  This game is so fun!  I hooked up with my hubby’s friend and he made a region for us to conquer.  My 9 year old son is having fun playing it too.  As a matter of fact I made use of the free game EA gave out as a consolation prize by installing Sim City 4 on the kid’s laptop so he can play offline and get off of MY game.

I haven’t made a metropolis yet, but I can see that this game could get really addictive.  Even though it has some annoying consumer-unfriendly DRM (Boo) I still am having fun playing and would recommend the game to anyone who likes to play at being Mayor Corey Booker.

Martha Wells new "The Siren Depths" third in The Cloud Road series.

I just saw that the third book in The Cloud Road series by Martha Wells is out.  This is the story of the Rakusa, shape shifting people who turn into flying creatures.  The protagonist is Moon, an orphan who learns he is to play a special role in the group known as the Indigo Cloud Court.

I am dissapointd that the book is not yet out for Kindle.  I am reading just about everything on Kindle these days so I will wait til its out in ebook form before I will buy it.

Tap tap tap on the microphone - I am reading everything on Kindle these days so please publishers make your books available in ebook form.

 

Wool Omnibus

I've been spending my extra time this week reading the 5 Wool books by Hugh Howey.  Howey manages to create an entire world underground, inside a Silo, populated by rich characters and hinting of a large mystery. Buying the Omnibus edition saves you some money from buying each individually if you haven't already read them.  

 

 

The Twelve by Justin Cronin

Justin Cronin's writing is like a dense piece of Black Forest cake - rich, thick, layered, and delicious.  I don't normally like zombie apacalypse and horror but Cronin's books are different.  He layers the gore and fright of the story with fantastically detailed portraits of people's lives and inner dialogue.  From the patently evil, to the heroes of the story, each major character seems to get their own novel.  I got sucked into "The Passage" last year and eagerly awaited the next in the trilogy "The Twelve."

Even the virals each have their own horror story of their original crimes and how their origin as death row inmates influences how their hunger comes over to their viral minions.   Not just horrifying creatures who come out at night.   And we learn even more about Carter, who has found a psychologically interesting way to handle his infection.

This story of how humans survive the unsurvivable, is in turns a story of military, government, and religion.  With elements of a ghost story, a history, a religious text, sometimes its seems like even the author doesn't know where he is going.  The plot is sprawling, the characters all over the darn place.

But I, like so many other readers, am along for the ride.   I even feel like donning some threaded studs and joining in the fight.

Cabin In the Woods

I dont even want to do a review of Cabin in the Woods.  I think people should just watch it!  If I tell you anything about it it will spoil the fun. 

As I mentioned in the last post, I don't usually like horror movies.  But this one is done with a wink, and the ending is just plain marvelous!  Ding!

So get your cubase 6 upgrade at musicians friend installed, make some music, and then watch this fun, scary, absurd film.

 

Prometheus Coming to DVD Tuesdayin

I missed Prometheus in the theater, but my hubby saw it and said I will like it.  I think this will be one of our Amazon retals through the Roku box.

I dont usually like horror movies but hopefully this one won't be too gross.  I don't have a  Nolan N43E but I can pop some popcorn and watch a flick.

 

Free Sci Fi Book - Bakkian Chronicles Book 1 The Prophecy

This freebie is actiually quite readable.  Don't get me wrong, it is in dire need of a great editor, but there is a lot of potential.

Steve and Sarah Miller are characters you can relate to.  When Steve inherits a house, some interesting things happen to them.  All of a sudden they are in another world, one populated by Griffins, and Dragons, and where all people have some magic abilities. Armed only with their clothes and the contents of Sarah's purse, they have to navigate the strange world they are in and try to find their way home.  Dressed in their strange clothes (they could probably use something like kerrits equestrian apparel) and withe their strange accents, the people of Lentari don't quite know what to make of the strangers.

I like the relationship between the two main characters.  They are just plain sweet, regular people.  The conflict in the story comes from their situation, but their love for each other remains a strong thread through the story.  I think it was great of author Jeffrey M. Poole to write a fantasy story with "everyman and everywoman" as the protangonists.  Where most married couples would snipe and snark at each other when presented with difficulties, Steve and Sarah try their best to be strong for each other. Nice role models.