Archive for September, 2009
My Family With the Beatles at iVillage
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Posted on September 11th, 2009 by
My family has taken to Beatles Rock Band in a special way. Linda especially. I think it has a lot to do with the music. Everything is familiar, most of it is beloved and my kids know most of the words already. I was lucky enough to get to write about why this is and its something I did that I recommend every parent do. iVillage (a horde of moms in one place) published my article and, hopefully, it’ll inspire some of them – and you – to retire the Kidz Bop forever. The Beatles – with a love like that, any parent should be glad!
Game Review: R-Type: Dimensions (Xbox LIVE)
Posted on September 10th, 2009 by
Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s, shoot ‘em ups were a dime a dozen in the arcades. But R-Type stood out from the rest with its graphical prowess, huge bosses, relentless challenge, and unique power-ups. Now you can enjoy R-Type and R-Type II in one package on Xbox LIVE with graphical upgrades or original visuals.
Batman vs. LEGO Batman
Posted on September 9th, 2009 by
As everyone should know by now Batman: Arkham Asylum has entered my “Best Games Ever” like a bullet – or like a more Batarang appropriate projectile. I love every inch of it, including the challenges and feel the game is vindication of the very idea that Writing and Voice matter so much more than Game Developers THINK it does. Scary stuff – quality – Rated Teen. Nice! And Lately I’ve been playing LEGO Batman with my son. Good teamwork, good fun, but I realized something – LEGO Batman is a million times more challenging that Arkham Asylum! Isn’t that weird? I think I’ve figured out why:
PAX-Man 2: The New Adventures
Posted on September 8th, 2009 by
The Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX for short, is a huge video game convention in Seattle spearheaded by the guys who do the prolific Penny Arcade web comic. PAX 09 was this past Labor Day weekend, and I was lucky enough to get a chance to go to it. Read on and join me on my PAX ‘09 adventures!
Book Review: The Dragon Codex Series
Posted on September 5th, 2009 by
In the past few years, the folks who make the Dungeons and Dragons role playing game have made a big effort to be more family friendly, trying to expose kids who have a natural love of fantasy and imagination to the rich tapestry of story that makes up the various parts of the Dungeon and Dragons mythos. Not immune to the lure of the very hot realm of preteen fiction, they have put together their own publishing line entitled Mirrorstone books. Two of the main series are the Practical Guide Series and the Dragon Codex Series. The Practical Guides are almost coffee table books for kids with rich, colorful illustrations and entertaining text on the topic of dragons, fairies, monsters and the like. The Dragon Codex series takes a more traditional route and is a series of young adult novels all tied to a particular color of dragon (in the D&D universe basic colored dragons like red or blue tend to be bad while metallic colored dragons like copper or gold tend to be good). All the codex books are fairly good reads, age-appropriate with a couple minor exceptions. They take advantage of the rich history of the D&D Dragonlance universe to provide stories about young teens having adventures in a world with a rich, diverse history. Each book is independent of the others, although if they are read in series there are occasional nods to occurrences to things that happened in previous books. Here are my thoughts on the books in the series so far.
Game Review: Lego Battles (DS)
Posted on September 4th, 2009 by
Nearly every child has whiled away some time playing with those ubiquitous building blocks, Legos. Whether through luck or planning, Lego has managed to also make a name for itself in the video game market, with dual licensed games such as Lego Star Wars and Lego Batman that are fun to play by kids and parents alike. Striking off on their own, Lego has entered the real-time strategy market with the Nintendo DS title, Lego Battles. It has much of the expected Lego charm and is a solid title, but due to its appeal to the younger set, it will not appeal to the typical hardcore real-time strategy gamer.
Doldrums – What are you Playing?
Posted on September 3rd, 2009 by
I’ve finished Batman and slated it for another playthrough (a rear thing for me) on Hard, sometime in the future. Beatles Rock Band is due in these parts today or tomorrow, but other than that I’m kind of at a loss game-wise. Wolfenstein lost my interest due to generic gameplay and poor pacing sometime back and I decided that Battlefield 1943 (an awesome download) just wasn’t fun using a console controller. What I really mean to say here is that back in the PC BF1942 I was a deadshot on Wake Island – on the 360 I wonder how the heck people can hit me so consistently. Of course, the coming PC version might just prove I’ve totally lost my touch. A real possibility at 38. So, what to play?
State of the Heart – 2 years Ago
Posted on September 2nd, 2009 by
Two years ago today I felt a little off. I did some gardening, kissed my kids as they went to a sleepover at a friends house and had a nice dinner with my wife. I started feeling a little chest pain – right side, like heart burn or a stomach ailment – but otherwise okay. Linda went to bed, I went to play video games, for the life of me I can’t remember what game it was. After an hour or so I woke Linda up, the pain was worse, but it still felt stomach related so she authorized me a second pill (Prilosec) and went back to sleep. I took a shower to help defer the discomfort and went back downstairs where – unbelievably to me now – I had a cigarette.
Blizzcon ’09 – Gaming with Children style
Posted on September 2nd, 2009 by
Blizzcon, the annual festival of all things Blizzard (World of Warcraft, Diablo, etc…) was recently held in Southern California. Rather than send some boring old grown-up to do the reporting, Gaming With Children went an entirely other direction – we sent a boy (and his mom). Since they’re both avid World of Warcraft players, it seemed a natural fit. Here’s his report!
Hi, I’m Aiden. On Friday, August 21, 2009, I was given the opportunity to go to Blizzcon as a reporter, thanks to the great guys at Gaming With Children. It was amazing! It was so big that the $175 tickets sold out in about a minute. If you weren’t in the queue to buy a ticket in the first thirty-seconds after they were available to the public, you didn’t get a ticket. However, I got to go for free as a Gaming with Children reporter! Blizzcon was held in four halls of the Anaheim Convention Center. Each hall had a different focus: World of Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft, and the Performance hall.
A PAX Approaches
Posted on September 1st, 2009 by
Well this will be my last blog until after I get back from PAX. When I’ve gone to video game conventions in the past, I usually would bring my dad with me because he could help me get around since I’m blind in my left eye, and plus I just like doing things with my family. This year I’m doing something a little different. I’m bringing little brother Jeff and my mom along. I’m glad that I can afford to take them on a vacation at this point in my life. I’ve never been able to do that before, and I might not have that chance again.
