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 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. (more…)
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.
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.
Our Sunday was spent amongst the mass of people, sixty thousand strong, at Maker Fair. I will venture to say that it was crowded, and it took me about an hour to find parking, but every second of discomfort was worth it to see the incredible inventions of these amazing people.
It was our first time going and we were not really prepared. Turns out almost the entire event was held outside. Yeah I read convention hall and figured no need for sunscreen and hats.
And one day? What were we thinking??? It was not nearly enough time to experiance the entire event.
We finally left the event sunburned and exhausted, but it was so incredibly worth it. People have made some crazy, ingenious, awesome, and beautiful stuff. And really I can’t not love an event where I can say: “Lets go see the burning thing over there!”
This is a game for all those people who used to play space invaders back in the day, for those who want to relive the glory days of when two bit graphics were awesome and games were simpler. Or maybe just for those, who want to torture their kids by trying to share some “history” with them.
For me it’s a blatant reminder of how much I suck at Space Invaders. I sucked at it back then and (shockingly enough) I suck at it now. Thankfully by the time I was introduced to computer games it was already ancient, meaning there were lots of much better options to play. Which is probably why I never got any better at playing it.
The DS version isn’t all about nostalgia; they did tried to modernize the game a bit. It boasts the original version, plus an updated advanced Space Invaders, which are essentially different variations on the original. Additional levels and bonus fighter plane skills get unlocked as you progress through the game.
The folks over at Blizzard have come up with an ingenious solution for assuring NDA (none disclosure agreement) compliance for their latest StarCraft 2 beta (at least for me anyway.)
Step 1 – Make the beta online only. Step 2 – Only enable head to head game play. Step 3 – Invite all the best StarCraft players in the world (yeah that’s right, Koreans also, you know a whole nation of people who are born instinctively knowing how to play StarCraft.) Step 4 – Sit back and rest assured that most people will never actually make past the first five minutes of any game as they have no chance of beating anyone with crazy SC skills.
Makes it hard to break that NDA if you have no way of really seeing much of the game.
That is certainly how its been for me. The longest any of my games have lasted thus far have been around ten minutes and they usually consist of me oohing and ahhing over how my poor team is getting their asses handed to them by units I didn’t even know existed.
Shocking that I haven’t been playing more of the beta, I know.
WonderCon was indeed this past weekend, an event that completely snuck up on me. Then again I’m terrible at planning for these things, which is probably one of the reasons I have been unable to make it to ComicCon the past few years. (If you don’t get a hotel room within the first hour that the phone lines open up, you are so out of luck!)
Thankfully WonderCon (the con of wonders and delights) is hosted near enough to home that a simple reminder from my husband the week before the event is plenty of notice to assure my attendance.
Just one of the many reasons that I love WonderCon. =)
Legos are quite the event at our house. For my husband it’s the hobby of choice, second only to computer games. Put Star Wars and Lego together, you get a veritable orgy of giddy joy.
Most of the lego-gasm results now decorate our house, the easiest (and safest) place to keep them being the top of shelves. Sharing the Lego love seemed like a good follow-up the Lego Star Wars Game Review.
It might be apparent that all of the sets we have are old school Star Wars only. The banning of episode 1-3 runs even to Lego. Although its not something I am going to argue with, since we are seriously running out of display room. In fact my husband has relegated the unfinished (super huge) Millennium Falcon set to the garage, because we have no place to put it.
I’m limiting the pictures to Star Wars sets only (and not even all of them!) Maybe at this winter I can convince my husband to set up the Lego trains.
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.
Ready Player One is the latest geeky book phenomenon by Ernest Cline and also the January book for the Geek Girl Book Club.
