Token Female Gamer

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.

(more…)

The first time I met Lara Croft was in Tomb Raider 2. She kicked some serious ass and I loved her for it. The whole game made such an impression that I have been following Lara’s trials and tribulations ever since. And though I have hung in there, the quality of the Lara Croft titles has been in steady decline.

That is until ‘Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light’ came along.

(more…)

The Kirby franchise has never really drawn me, nor have the previous Kirby games I played impressed me much. But with all the fabulous reviews that Kirby’s Epic Yarn was pulling in, I admit I was curious.

So I set my expectations low, partially because it is a Kirby game, but mostly because I don’t often agree with the average reviewer. Those favorable reviews have sucked me in before, sucked me in a burned me!!

With low expectations and lots of caution I sat down to play the game and was blown away. I was simply stunned at how fabulous it was – mouth agape shocked!

It’s simple, it’s fun, it’s light, it’s cute, but most importantly it’s the most adorable game ever made.

(more…)

Starcraft 2 must have been an incredible struggle to make. Not that I can fault Blizzard, because, lets face it, creating a sequel to Starcraft – one of the largest and most popular PC games to date, the game that single handedly saved South Korea (okay I made that one up, but it is a national pastime there) – must have been an incredibly difficult challenge.

How to give all the Starcraft fans a game they could recognize and yet still create something new?! Choices had to be made and clearly it was not easy, because it took them over ten years.

Despite everything, the game was finally released and it has been an unmitigated success. Proof: The Starcraft 2 Plane! (Okay it’s a cross promotion with Korean Air, but still how awesome do you have to be to get to advertise on a plan?!)

(more…)

It’s always a pleasant surprise when a sequel manages to exceed its predecessor’s fun value. By retaining the chewy inner nugget of goodness and strengthening the original game’s weak points, Super Mario Galaxy 2 certainly succeeds.

From what I have read it wasn’t actually supposed to be a full-fledged sequel, but more of a continuation – a bit more fun to be had. But I guess the developers were inspired because it ended up as a bit too much more. =)

(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…)

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…)

One of the suggestions that I got from my WoW raiding 101 write up was that I hadn’t mentioned anything about PUGs and how those should affect peoples class role choices.

PUG – Acronym for the phrase ‘pick up group’ – meaning to play as a team with random people.

Pick up groups are something most aspiring raiders will have to deal with, especially in World of Warcraft as it is today. Unless of course gifted with a very dedicated set of friends to play with, or part of a large guild that has enough daily active members to provide frequent group and raid buddies.

(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…)

The second expansion for World of Warcraft, Wrath of the Lich King (WotFK), graced us with its presents a mere year and ten months after the last expansion. (Woot! Our wait was cut by four months!)

Feature wise, it was very similar to the previous expansion, a new continent to explore, new higher levels to reach, more quests, more dungeons, and more loot. They even added a brand new class to play.

And yet, WotLK has been the more successful expansion. Clearly a lot was learned from the previous two games, because they somehow managed to keep and fine tune features that worked well while weeding out most of the irritating bits.

But not all the features are recycled, loads of new ones joined the frey, seamlessly blending new and old. A few of the most notable additions being: achievements and vehicle-combat.

(more…)