Token Female Gamer

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.

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January always inspires thoughts of new years resolutions. Whilst contemplating this year’s set of goals, it became apparent to me that my lists are very much the same from year to year, write more, get out more, dance more, play more, same old same old (boring!)

So I scrapped that idea, and thought, well what about a ‘bigger picture’ take on the whole thing. Which of course bogged me down into the realm of world peace, cure cancer, fight depression, and end world hunger. Scrapped that list also. These vital problems are too large and important for a mere January resolution list.

On the verge of abandoning the whole idea, it occurred to me that maybe I should think of this as a wish list. Pick ten really geeky and totally frivolous things I would love to see happen, however unlikely.

And so, with this post, I release my top ten picks into the geekaverse. May they show up on someone’s to do list, preferably someone who can make shit happen.

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SWTOR was released yesterday. The official ‘buy it in the store’ version; the beta has been floating around a while now. Never had the time to play it in beta, even though I got a few invites.

A new MMORG always has me hesitating. It’s a big commitment and most of them are just so disappointing, its better to set expectations low to avoid total heartbreak. But the husband wanted to try it, so I went out and picked up two copies yesterday.

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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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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.

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I finished Mass Effect 2!! The entire thing. I saw the credits! Been playing WoW so long I almost forgot what an end game scene looks like. Really didn’t think I would make it all the way to the end.

Anyway I’m just jazzed and wanted to share. =D
And for those of you who have finished it, I took the boom ending.

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!

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Oh, Final Fantasy! So many great memories!! What a Legacy!!

This is 13 after all!! What other game series has come out with this many titles and remains as successful? It’s quite incredible really.

And yet, after playing this version, I wonder how the franchise has managed to hang on this long. Legacy coattails?

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Last night I was wrapping presents and wanted something to watch to make the process a bit more entertaining. After perusing the instant watch list on Netflix, G.I. Joe seemed like the a good brainless option.

Its brainless alright. Beyond brainless really and more like the worst movie of all time!

I say this as a lover of bad movies, a believer in the “B” genre, and a devout snide commentator. Even all my childhood G.I.Joe nostalgia wasn’t enough to save this movie. (I played with GI Joe figures for crying out loud, there is nostalgia there!! Though it might be dead now.)

The plot made no sense, the script was irritating, the characters were strange, plus there were like five million of them which made it impossible to keep track. Just terrible. I found almost nothing forgivable about the movie. The CG was fine. Oh and it did encourage me to hurry up with my wrapping.

Worst movie ever! Not even going to bother rating it. Its so bad I’m embarrassed to say I watched as much of it as I did. Turned it off fifteen minutes before the end because I was done with my present wrapping and had no interest in watching any more. Spare yourself, avoid this movie.

Quite looking forward to this one, as I have quite a few books in from the library that need to be read before the year is out.

Last month went far better than I expected it too, so I am holding out some hope for managing quite a few books, despite the holidays.

TBR Clean-up Challenge.
Pick 10 books from your current physical TBR pile (preferably books that have been there for quite some time). Also pick 5 more books as ‘alternate’ reads just in case.

Unlike previous challenges, once you put up this list, you CANNOT CHANGE it. However, you can drop down to an alternate book, if you really cannot finish a book that you have selected in your original list.