Uncharted 3 is the latest installment in the wildly successful Uncharted series. It follows Nathan Drake, a modern day fortune hunter, … you know what, screw this. Behold Uncharted 3, my biggest gaming disappointment of 2011.
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Ready Player One is the latest geeky book phenomenon by Ernest Cline and also the January book for the Geek Girl Book Club.
Set in a dystopian future; economic and environmental catastrophes have resulted in a huge worldwide resource shortage. Anyone who can afford it escapes his or her poverty stricken existence by plugging into the virtual OASIS, an immersive Massively Multiplayer Online Game.
Upon his death, the creator of OASIS, wills his entire fortune, billions of dollars and controlling shares in the OASIS Company, to the first person that can find the three virtual keys he has hidden inside the game. Massive treasure hunting fever sweeps the world.
Five years later, not a single key has been found. Until Wade, a young man who, like most of his peers, grew up plugged into the OASIS simulation. He discovers, through luck, tenacity and a bit of brains, the first of the three keys. Pandemonium ensues and we get to come along for the ride.
This movie was an automatic add to my queue when I spotted it on the new release list. I am a total sucker for hot Asian guys in fantasy movies. Needless to say my queue is filthy with random Asian movies.
Blame Chow Yun Fat (love Hard Boiled) or maybe Ekin Chen (of the fabulous Storm Warriors). Whatever the case, the little otaku in me goes weak in the knees when served with sword wielding, martial arts masters of the Asian persuasion.
Like most of these random adds, this movie was a complete mystery. Watching these is always a crapshoot, as a pretty poster (or actor) will only take my interest in a movie so far. Sadly, not all that many live up to expectations, though finding out is always entertaining. =)
But the Warrior’s Way was stroke of luck. The poster did not lie, swords, ninjas, and action abounds!
This is the prequel to the very popular Deus Ex from ages ago. Set twenty-five years before, it explores the controversial introduction of biomechanical augmentations for humans.
Having never played the original, I wasn’t really sure what I was getting myself into. I just assumed that it was going to be like Mass Effect 2 and was actually looking forward to playing another first person RPG.
But this game is not what I was expecting at all. Turns out that Deus Ex is essentially a stealth game, and a mean one at that.
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Professor Layton and his sidekick Luke are back and ready to solve their third adventure filled with murder, mystery and mayhem.
In true sequel fashion, this third installment is identical too its predecessors. Oh the story is certainly different and the mini games changed, but the look, game play, and interactions are essentially the same.
In my case, this is not a bad thing. I had already dealt with my bout of disappointment when I played through the second installment, and accepted that the Layton series is not about to evolve. So more of the same is just I was expecting when I started in on #3.
Bioware’s epic sequel was a huge success; sold millions of copies and probably single handedly funded the new Star Wars MMO (well maybe not). Of course all the reviewers loved it, which automatically makes made me suspicious.
Good reviews are a kiss/curse for me. Everyone seems to be talking about the damn game, yet I so rarely agree with the general media populace. Internal struggle ensues, which is why I tend to drag my heels.
Thus Mass Effect 2 managed to get shelved behind a bunch of other less controversial items. Plus, it had an extra strike against it because I played Mass Effect (the original) on the xbox. Ugh, playing with those stupid analogue sticks made me want to scream. I think it got a total of twenty minutes playtime before I vowed to torch the disk.
But I learned, and purchased Mass Effect 2 for the PC. If only I had gotten the original on the PC, I might have played it far more.
This dastardly tale begins in a rather well lit game store – a surprisingly clean and well-organized game store, which is probably why our fair heroin enjoys shopping there. Though only on days when she can afford too, as every trip into the well organized and friendly game store results in purchases.
This particular day is no different as she discovers a new wonder, a miracle, a fabulous gem of a game and thus cannot leave the store without it. ‘Dungeons and Dragons – the Wrath of Ashardalon’ calls to her like a siren and she is helpless to resist. (See why she avoids going into the store?!!?)
Giddy with anticipation, she hauls the gigantic box to the counter. The weighty game promises not only cooperative game play, but also loads of figures and tokens and tiles and cards; all wrapped up with a nice Dungeons and Dragons bow.
Long has our heroin mourned the loss of a regular pen and paper RPG night. Might this game fill some of this void? Mayhap the friendly clerk at the store spoke the truth by calling the game a simplified Dungeon and Dragons for busy people.
Thus she called together her fair adventurers (yup, three dudes) and they set forth on their journey to vanquish Ashardalon, with a detour to Castle Ravenloft.
The single iPad in our house really belongs to my husband. This has never posed a problem, as I haven’t found much use for it. Then he shared Battleheart with me. This addictive little game is almost good enough to cause iPad fights.
Although Battleheart is a very accomplished game, the few items of great annoyance have tempered my addiction enough to save us from having to purchase iPad #2. =)
Title: (Big) Boggle Boardgame
I would have never thought of myself as a word game fan. My Scrabble skills are horrendous at best, even Bananagrams is a challenge, but then it really comes down to my horrible spelling. At least that is what I blame my aversion to word games on. But Boggle changed all that.
Boggle is about creating words out of a fairly large pool of random letters. Short words are encouraged, the more the better. And since there is no need to fit the words on to a board in a specific manner, all that really matters is that it’s a legal word. Yaay!
So I may be a crappy speller, but I certainly can manage a few short words. And even if I did misspell a word, it wouldn’t matter much because there are always plenty more words that I did manage to actually spell correctly.
Way back in the day, when Portal was first released, you know the dark ages of 2007, purchasing a game that I already owned didn’t seem worth it. Portal was bundled in the Orange Box, a Valve game extravaganza including such games as Half-life 2 (owned it), two expansion packs, and Team Fortress 2.
But the Portal section of the box made such huge waves, it peaked my curiosity so I ran a ‘portal game’ search. The result was a poor, browser based imitation that frustrated me within the first ten minutes. This just reinforced my resolve not to purchase The Orange Box and I carried on, blissfully ignorant.
Enter Portal 2 with its cooperative multiplayer. That’s a tag line that is sure to get me to sit up and pay attention. So I begged my buddy to play it with me and after hours of badgering he caved, but set this one requirement – I had to play the original Portal first.
Best blackmail ever!
