femalegamer

In celebration of its third anniversary, Guild Wars featured some in-game fun this past week and is also hosting a sweepstakes on its Web site.

Logon here to answer a few questions and take part in the sweepstakes if you play the game currently, or have played in the past.

Prizes for the sweepstakes include an Alienware Area-51 high performance gaming laptop, five ATI Radeon HD 3870 512MB video cards, three Logitech G51 5.1 speaker systems and 10 third prizes, which can be one of the following: Logitech G9 gaming mouse, Creative Labs X-Fi XtremeGamer sound card and a Logitech G15 gaming keyboard.

And, in-game to celebrate the anniversary, birthday cupcakes began dropping off of mobs starting April 24; players had access to Rollerbeetle Racing and the Dragon Arena through the newly re-opened Shing Jea Monastery; third year miniatures became available will be sent to players on their characters’ birthdays (creation date); and players who complete Hells Precipice will receive a talisman that can be exchanged for a new Deldrimor weapon.
Fun stuff!

And what better way to celebrate an anniversary with a GW dance video!

I have an admission to make. Female gamers piss me off.

“But, FG, you’re female, how can they piss you off? Isn’t there some sort of gamer sisterhood?”

Yes, that’s true to some degree. And, don’t get me wrong, there’s a bunch of decent women in-game, some of whom I very much consider my friends (and in this example, I’m talking WoW). However, they’re usually the “play the game, keep their head down, may acknowledge to being a woman, but it isn’t something they play up” variety.

No, the women I’m talking about are the ones who purposefully and repeatedly bash it into your head they’re female. Whether they’re flirting or making crude comments every chance they get via guild chat or whisper, they highlight their femininity and sexuality every opportunity. Their sole purpose in game it seems is to have every guy wrapped around their finger…

I don’t know, if that’s your intention wouldn’t you be better served on a dating site (this dating site in particular, www.datecraft.com ) or live Web cam?

PS- Great. All the strides I’ve made trying to fine-tune the embedded ads to my blog just went out the window with this post…

With GTA IV going on sale just after midnight tonight, industry experts are expecting it to outsell last year’s top seller, Halo 3 (5 million in the U.S.), by several million. Estimates are putting GTA IV’s sales at 8 to 10 million, possibly eclipsing GTA San Andreas (9.4 million in the U.S.), which is still on record as the top selling game in the U.S. As with all previous GTA releases, expect a media windstorm on violence in games…

During a recent analyst meeting, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said the company did not factor in price cuts for the WII or the DS for 2008, however, the DS could be looking at another redesign…

High Voltage has announced its third game for Nintendo’s WiiWare. Animales de la Muerte will take place in a Mexican Zoo run by Don Eduardo Mendoza. The big problem at the zoo, however, is all the fluffy bunnies and cute penguins are dying off and returning as blood-lusting zombies.

The up-to-four-player game focuses on Don’s grandchildren, Marco and Maria Mendoza, as the heroes of the hour. The Mendoza siblings kill the affected animals with a number of fun weapons and ultimately some kicka– martial arts moves and rescue the unaffected animals.

I never thought I would say that a zombie walrus was cute, but damn… this game looks like it will be a rather adorable zombie killer.

Wanna see?

I did it. I had my first Wii experience the other day.

After much debating, one of our friends finally gave in, found one and snatched it up. Along with four controllers, four nunchucks (speaking of nunchucks, check out these limited edition ones by NYKO!) and a handful of games.

For the most part I found the entire experience to be a blast. The games were pretty damn simple, fun, easy to get (with a small learning curve). As a lefty who does some things right-handed (about 60/40 right to left, but all the fine-tuned things are lefty), the controllers were a bit gangly, especially when the nunchuck was involved. But, other than compensating for my awkward playstyle, it’s an amazingly cool console with a lot of potential.

For a whole afternoon and late into the night we were consumed with four-man competitive Mario Party, Monkey Ball, Bowling and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

I have to admit, I probably would have enjoyed the games more if I was drinking, as everyone else was (Wii seems like the ideal drunken party console). Unfortunately though, I was still hurting from the night before and not in the mood to partake again so soon.

My main complaint for the evening was not the gaming at all, but the obnoxious alpha male personalities that can come out when drinking. You can be as competitive as you want, go for it, I usually am, but don’t be a tool about it… that’s all I ask.

Every Friday I will run down the following week’s new releases, consider it building in time for review research over the weekend before you make your decisions!

Baseball Mogul 2009, available Tuesday, April 29, on PC

Brain Voyage, available Tuesday, April 29, on DS

Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor , available Wednesday, April 30, on PC

Grand Theft Auto IV, available Tuesday, April 29, on Xbox 360, PS3

Great War Nations: The Spartans, available Thursday, May 1, on PC

Iron Man, available Friday, May 2, on Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, PC, PSP, DS, Wii

Mario Kart Wii, available Sunday, April 27, on the Wii, of course!

RooGoo, on Xbox 360, PC

SNK Arcade Classics, available Monday, April 28, on PSP, PS2

Toy Shop , available Tuesday, April 29, on DS

Happy shopping!

I swear I’m too young to be pulling the “I remember when…” card, yet I find myself doing it more and more these days.

I remember when children could entertain themselves in the car and not need a DVD player…

I remember when MTV and VH1 played, gasp, music videos…

I remember the passion and love that went into making a mixtape, unlike the sterile emotionless experience of burning a CD…

I remember when a 15-minute Internet outage wouldn’t cripple an office…

Most of all, I remember walking into a game store like Babbage’s or GameSpot and having shelf upon shelf of PC games to look at.

I have to admit, it actually saddens me that now that PC games have been relegated to one tiny shelf and every other platform imaginable has taken over. While I can appreciate that these other platforms add to the options and fill a need, I can’t help but feel that those of us who prefer PC gaming are slowly going by the way of the cassette. We’re being pushed out to make room for the new and shiny consoles.

Yes, we could move on to the new platforms as well, but part of me, maybe stubbornly, still prefers a game on a computer more than I ever could via a controller on a TV.

I find myself longing for the not-so-old days, when we had our pick of the bunch and weren’t limited by lousy selection, staring jealously at the neverending racks of PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii games.

Blizzard recently opened up a contest to all World of Warcraft players asking them to make a music video using the Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain song “Rogues Do It From Behind.” And yes, you really have to hear the song to fully appreciate it!

Prizes include three iPod Touch 8GBs (drool worthy!) and five Logitech G15 keyboards, and speaking from experience, that is a phenomenal keyboard (though the paint rubs off with too much use).

For more information on the contest, video requirements and to download the song, click here. Contest rules and eligibility are available here.

Pull out Fraps and get busy, the contest only runs until May 18!

And for some motivation, check out this excellent WoW Battlestar Galactica video. Enjoy!

I feel rather guilty that my first post is going to be a lament for the overkill of a series… And yes, when it comes to Grand Theft Auto, I know I am very much in the minority believing that.

With the release of GTA IV nearing, April 29, the game has been on my mind a lot lately.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the series, multiple versions in fact: III, Vice City and San Andreas. I don’t take offense to the violence, the car wrecks, the car jackings or even beating up random people on the street for their wallets or having your way with the street walkers and then getting your money back. It is not a moralistic stand I am taking against this game, no, I enjoy the release it provides as much as the next person.

But after you go through one, it just seems like rehash. Yes, they’re in different towns and eras; yes, the missions and people change. In the big scheme of things they’re all the same… go through, do the races against time, do the missions, do the random killing sprees, see who can get the most air in a car jump, then use the cheat codes and hole yourself up to see how much damage you can cause before you are caught.

It gets old. Yes, this is going to be a more visually appealing and realistic version of the game, but does that really make it any different than its predecessors?