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.

Skylanders!

Skylanders figures have become really hard to find, so I am going to show off our collection.  Most of these we got right in the beginning when it first came out around Christmas-time.  A couple of the new ones I got from Amazon on pre-order.

The kids really get a kick out of the game, and I like the way you can extend the game with the additional modules.  The toys themselves are very well made and the boys sit and play imaginatively with them without the game at all, which is pretty cool.

I really want to finish my basement and make it into the worlds coolest playroom.  Some of the walls are already drywalled, but I need to do a lot more work on it - like basement flooring, etc.  I'd love to have a bathroom added, and have just the place for it.  Well, that's something to save for.

Free Booster Pack of Magic the Gathering Cards on September 10th

This looks like a fun way to get back into MTG or get a kid into it.

 

Wizards of the Coast is having a "Magic Celebration" event on Sept 10th, 2011:

Magic Celebration Event

Local Stores — Magic Celebration is happening worldwide on September 10th, 2011! Check out our tournament locator to find an event near you. Contact your local store to confirm their participation and the event venue location.

Trading In Video Games

Today we took a pile of old DS games that the kids don't play anymore, and some XBox games the hubster doesn't play anymore to GameStop and got a $64.00 credit.

The kids each got a new (or used as the case may be) DS game and a new case for their DSi's.  I ended up paying about $10 but I think it was a good deal to clean out the house a bit, and especially to give the kids a lesson about the value of goods.

While we were there we saw a Nintendo3DS.  Instantly made me car sick in about 20 seconds of looking at it.  Blech.  I needed some of the best creatine supplement and a nap after that experience.  3D and me do not get along very well.  Add it to the list of thigs that make me car sick - cars, boats, airplanes, IMAX...  Yes I am a sad puppy.

Why Pokemon is Good for Kids

When I was young my brother used to play strategy games.  War strategy games, and when Dungeons and Dragons came out they played that.  I remember one time we were visiting New York City and he found a store that was hosting strategy games.  When we went to pick him up they were playing WWII on a table that was a model of Europe complete with countries, terrain and figures representing armies.  Not your average modern furniture.   He was a chess player, and is a general math genius and today is a hot commodity programmer and project manager.  I am pretty sure that strategy games contribute to the development of logical thinking skills, not to mention big picture planning and leadership skills.

When the hubster and I were first dating we played Magic the Gathering.  We were actually in a league for awhile, which was fun.  It turns out I am pretty bad player, though, so I never won any official matches.

So now that my older son is 7, its been really fun to introduce the two of them to Pokemon.  I immediately recognized the format of the game - its kid of "Magic the Gathering, light."  Simple enough for kids to play, it still retains the basics of strategy, logical thinking, and math.

Why is Pokemon good for kids?

* Pokemon encourages reading and reading comprehension.  To play the card game you have to read the cards and understand the abilities and special actions.

*Pokemon requires math.  You have to add up the points and damages and subtract from the total points of each card in play.

* Pokemon encourages logic and planning.  You have to stock up your spare cards, so you go through the deck and have to be able to predict what will be helpful later on.  You also will want to stock your deck with cards that go together.

* Pokemon are very kid friendly - they don't die after their battles, they faint and get rejuvenated.

Even the Pokemon Nintendo DS games have been great learning experiences for my son.  They are very heavy on text explanation.  When he first started playing he used to have to ask me to read the text.  Then, as his reading ability caught up, he eagerly reads the text and understands the story behind the game.  He loves his "Pokedex" books that list each type of Pokemon character and how they evolve into other types.  It's great to see kids excited about reading - that is going to give them a foundation for a lifetime of enjoyment and learning.

 

Got Me Some Rock Band 3

Hubster received a Best Buy gift card from his brother for Christmas, and we had a couple of reward zone certificates, so he's been chomping at the bit to spend some dough at Best Buy.  Today was the day - he came home with Rock Band 3 and a Keyboard.

So far so good - It took me a few minites to figure out to use all 5 fingers starting with thumb on the keyboard's "middle c."  I still don't understand what the rest of the keys are for -LOL.

Funniest part of the day was listening to my 7 year old belt out the Flaming Lips "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots."  5 Year old played the keyboard.  I think they played it about 10 times in a row.

Then he got to spend the rest of the day watching playoff football, so it was also a football gift day.

 

Got a Kinect for the Holidays

The hubster and I decided to get only one present for each other and we went with a Microsoft Kinect. We wasted no time when it arrived yesterday and broke it out and set it up.  Hey - it's halfway between Hanukkah and Christmas so why not?

We skipped any iphone, or other gadgets and went right for the Kinect.

First impressions - it's AWESOME.  We have been playing Kinectimals and that is a great game for our kids who are 5 and 7.  We also broke out Dance Central.  I had a blast dancing to Poker Face by Lady Gaga.  Too funny.

Play Online Role Playing Game Age of Conan Free

I am copying the information below from my favorite deals website, slickdeals.net.  If you are not busy playing with your new ping pong table, then this might be a great opportunity to try a new online multi-player role playing game for free.

Unlimited Free Trial of the first 20 levels in Age of Conan now available free.

Funcom is delighted to announce a unique holiday offer for its massively multiplayer online game `Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures'. Anyone who downloads, registers, and starts playing the trial before January 1st 2010 will be able to enjoy all of level one to twenty – the entire Island of Tortage experience – without ever having to upgrade to a full account or pay a subscription fee. This unique Unlimited Free Trial campaign is only available until January 1st.

Go to http://www.ageofconan.com/trial (copy/paste link) to download the client and start your barbaric adventures today. Players can level up as many characters as they want before choosing to move on and explore the rest of the game. Players will be able to enjoy all of what Tortage Island has to offer, complete with player vs. environment and player vs. player gameplay. Users must take advantage of this offer before January 1st, and will need to log in to the game for the offer to take effect.

In dark gaming times, Nintendo DS shines - Citizen Gamer- msnbc.com

This has been a week, and really more like an entire month, that has delivered me (and a great many others) unto gaming heaven. That is, this week saw the launch of both “Scribblenauts” and “Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story” — two staggeringly awesome games that have kept me with a DS clutched in my hands for far too many hours.

via www.msnbc.msn.com

Interesting review of two new DS games. My kids love their DSs and I will check out Scribblenauts and Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story for sure.

New WOW Cataclysm Trailer - See Worgen Mount, Deathwing

A new trailer for WOW Cataclysm (Upcoming release for the MMPORG World of Warcraft) has been released on the  WoW site.  Get a glimpse of Deathwing, the character that the new WOW release will revolve around.  Also, I see players are excited about the new Worgen class, and the Worgen Mount.

Thanks to Zam.com for this info.  They alo host a Cataclysm Wiki.