Token Female Gamer

Look what showed up in my email the other day.

Thank you for being a valued member of Xbox LIVE. We want to let you know about an upcoming price increase for Xbox LIVE Gold subscriptions. The new price for Gold membership goes into effect on November 1, 2010. The new prices are as follows:

Old Price / New Price
1-Month Gold Subscription $7.99 / $9.99
3-Month Gold Subscription $19.99 / $24.99
12-Month Gold Subscription $49.99 / $59.99

With an Xbox LIVE Gold membership, you can play blockbuster games such as Halo: Reach with your friends online, you can also stream movies from Netflix* and music from Last.fm right to your TV. You can even connect with friends near and far on Facebook® and Twitter™. Gold members also enjoy exclusive discounts and early access to game demos. And, this holiday, Xbox LIVE is adding new Gold features, including ESPN and Video Kinect, with Hulu Plus coming on Xbox Live in 2011.

(more…)

Meet Nathan Drake, fortune hunter, grave robber (with a heart), rock climber, gunslinger, truck wrangler, and part time archeologist. Sounds great right? Yeah well turns out he is also an idiot, albeit an exceedingly competent idiot.

His physical capabilities are incredible. The man can scale icy cliffs, shoot almost any type of weapon, fling himself from one moving vehicle to the next, all while hardly breaking a sweat, but he is clearly lacking the common sense gene (aka dumb as a brick.)

(more…)

Everything I have read about Heavy Rain leads me to the same conclusion – this game is a critic’s wet dream. “Exhausting, exhilarating, and, crucially, involving” (PS Magazine). “Powerful and emotionally engaging narrative” (GameSpot). You get the point. It manages to push all the right “critic” buttons: innovative, graphics driven, and story rich.

The game reminds of me of all those sad depressing artsy movies about special people that somehow manage to win the Oscars time and time again. Those movies that are lauded for their craft, composition, and story; those movies that suck all the fun out of life and that I avoid at all costs.

(more…)

Nostalgia is back in style and the huge success of the newest Super Mario Bros game on the Wii is a true testament to the trend. With over ten million copies sold its clear that plenty of gamers are not only pining for the less graphic intensive games of their childhood, but also appreciate excellent game play.

As a long time Mario fan I truly felt that the soul of the Super Mario games was lost once they switched to 3D. But they are finally back, in original 2D with one of their best titles since Super Mario World.

(more…)

Evil never looked so cute. Or maybe cute never tried so hard to be evil. Whatever the case, cute clearly triumphs over evil in this fabulously entertaining tower defense game.

I have long been a fan of playing the dark side of things, especially when presented in a humorous light. Dungeon Keeper 2 hooked me, while Overlord cemented my devotion. FFCC – My Life as a Darklord only reaffirms that humor and evil are made to go together. Throw in some cute and it’s nigh irresistible.

(more…)

Now a days I tend to avoid scary games. Yet there was indeed a time when I enjoyed them; enjoy may be the wrong description, it was much more: cringed my way through the experience. Yet clearly some part of it was exciting enough to be entertaining.

Resident Evil (the original) was probably the first horror game I played on the console and boy did it scare the shit out of me. The spooky atmosphere in that vast ancient house, monsters dropping on top of you when you least expect it, and every nerve racking moment when nothing happens but you just can’t help expecting something to jump out at you anyway. Plus I got to kick ass playing a girl, which is always a big plus in my book.

(more…)

Star Wars and Indiana Jones are integral parts of my childhood and have helped mold me into the person I am today. Despite the strong early years attachment I have to them, they managed to maintain those awe filled memories with sappy nostalgia instead of shattering them into bitter shards of disbelief. (Must be magic!)

Delving into such a precious license can be daunting, as there is a lot of emotional history attached to it.

Lego Indiana Jones masterfully manages to honor the movies and bring some freshness to the story without squashing any nostalgic memory I have.

(more…)

One of the main reasons that I started with the Lego Star Wars review was to use it as a baseline. Fundamentally, Lego Batman is the same game. Why rehash all their similarities then?

(more…)

The original Lego Star Wars came out over four years ago. It was such a success, loved by critics and fans alike, that it spawned a bevy of similar games based on a variety of Lego licenses.

I never got to play the Original game. Its successors on the other hand, have gotten quite a workout.

(more…)

If only I like Halo more, I could be chatting it up with Nathan Fillion!

/sigh!

Nathan Fillion Talks about his work on Halo ODST.

<3 TFG