femalegamer

Hauteness over at Single in L.A. tagged me in one of her recent posts. Seeing As I’ve been absolutlely M.I.A. the past few weeks, thanks to a rather large project I have coming due, I thought I’d take a few moments away from it and post. In the meantime, I promise I will be back full force soon, just a bit overwhelmed!

Here’s the rules:

1. Link back to the person who tagged you
2. Mention the rules on your blog
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

Of course, I may tinge my responses with a video game slant….

1. World of Warcraft: 4 70s: Hunter, Mage, Druid (feral) and Warlock. 2 mid-60s: Priest and Rogue. Missing the game terribly and looking forward to getting back into it!

2. Age of Conan: Initially played a Demonologist, but switched characters with my husband, since he was playing a Bear Shaman and I was hired to write a Bear Shaman Class Guide (that would be the large project that’s kept me busy). Looking forward to finishing the guide and heading back to Warcrack.

3. Top 5 First Person Shooters: Half Life 1&2, Deus Ex, No One Lives Forever and Doom 2 (for old times sake!).

4. I’m a keyboard hog. If my husband and I tackle one game together, he rarely gets the controls. I think that’s probably why we went to MMORPGs… both of us can play together on our own computers.

5. Favorite Sims: Pharaoh, Emperor and Zoo Tycoon. I even take Sims to the competitive side. Hubby and I play side by side, and its all about me having the most money, happiest people, most resources or the prettiest setup.

6. Next up: Wii Fit. We’ve got the Wii… just need the Fit and we’re golden.

Tagged:

Entertainment on Parade

GameSource

Vision

Offering Guitar Hero and Rock Band through their console wasn’t enough for the people at Nintendo apparently. Instead, to round out the musical experience, the company showcased its newest game, Wii Music, at the E3 convention.

Wii Music, which will hit stores in time for Christmas, allows players to use the Wii-motes to simulate up to 60 musical instruments. Played solo or with up to three other people, the point of the game is not to match songs/beats/notes like GH or RB, but to move the Wii-motes to your own beat. In doing so, the Wii will generate a tune/beats to match the main song.

Hrm. So, yeah. I’m assuming there must be some sort of challenge in there. Some reason to motivate you to play. I guess I’m just missing what it is. The nice thing about RB or GH is it is a challenge - hitting the beats correctly - “playing” the tune. If the sole motivation is to just “waggle” your Wii-sax in order to create a new layer to an existing tune, I don’t get it.

The company also unveiled a snowboarding game (using the Fit’s balance board) and a new Wii Sports which includes jetskiing, fencing and frisbee throwing.

Editor’s Gripe of the Day: I love the Wii. I love the potential the Wii has to truly push forward the gaming experience. This is the best they’ve come up with???

To me, these games are the equivalent of reforming Led Zepplin and telling them they can only play “Mary had a Little Lamb” - so much potential, but wasted on something silly and mundane.

C’mon guys - push the boundaries!

Okay, hand a teenager a video game in which they’re killing monsters, I’m fine (most of the time - there may be some exceptions with both games and certain teenagers). There may be some blood and gore, but I’d like to think that the teenager is able to differentiate between real life (blood and gore = bad) and game life (there’s nothing wrong with a little pixellated blood and guts).

However, a new Wii game, “Pong Toss,” has me up in arms. Sounds innocent, yes? What if you knew that JV Games (under their Frat Party Games line) initially released the game under the title Beer Pong? Now, what if I said this game was rated T for teen (meaning it is acceptable for ages 13 and up)?

After initial concerns, JV changed the name to the more generic Pong Toss and took out all references of booze. Yes, it is a completely sterilized version, technically you’re aiming into pyramid stacked empty red and white plastic cups. However, the only correlation this game has in real life is the drinking game. Even if a child doesn’t realize this at first… you know one of their schoolmates will likely point it out.

Now, I know I can’t say that this game will lead to more teens playing beer pong (the real version). But, when you’re that age - you tend to be a bit more impressionable, curious and approval-seeking. With a game that is set in a much more realistic setting… you’re more likely to try and reproduce it (unlike, say, blowing up a space ship). Yes, underage drinking happens, unfortunately it’s one of those facts of life much like the sky is blue or the Giants are the reigning Super Bowl champs at this very moment. However, we should be discouraging it, something I fear this game is very much not doing.

There have been few points in my life where I out and out disagreed with the concept of a game. This would be one of them.

After two days with the Wii version of Rock Band, I can truly say it is a fun experience.

Never in my life did I imagine I would be singing in front of my husband with reckless abandon! (Normally I’ll sing in the car, but one or the both of us will turn up the volume to drown my voice out).

Yes, we seem to be a female fronted band - I get to sing, he takes drums or guitar. Right now, we’re just going through the game in the hopes of unlocking all the songs for an upcoming weekend at camp (I use the term camp very loosely, camping involves tents… this involves electricity, indoor plumbing and real furniture) with two other couples.

Occasionally we switch it up so I can get accustomed to the instruments. For the most part though, he swears that when he’s drumming he’s paying no attention to my vox… I guess that’s a good thing - though damn I wish he was paying attention to my 34-phrase streak on R.E.M.’s Orange Crush!

The game has a fun selection of songs, although it doesn’t have the ability to download additional tracks like the Xbox. It is still enough for our use - ultimately more for social fun than serious rock star dreams. Within a few days, if we’re feeling particularly musical, there will be a Rock Band “expansion pack” we can pick up to add to our collection (20 new songs).

The various instruments work great and I think they’ve improved the drum kit since the Xbox version. However, I’m not without complaints. For the Wii version, they’ve done away with the band personalization - you don’t get to create “your” band. Yes, you get to come up with a band name, but the bands playing behind the tracks are generic bands. Figuring that we don’t have completely new band members every single song we do… it’s a little annoying. Also, they’ve streamlined the “rise to glory.” There’s no winning fans or unlocking new venues. While it really doesn’t take away from the play experience, I love having silly goals to work toward - this one included.

No matter the complaints, I look forward to the hours of entertainment this game will provide to us and our friends alike. And, in the meantime, we’re going to continue rocking The Fillmore in our bedroom.

Happy gaming!

Yet again it was another wonderful weekend of gaming within the FG household (and outside the household as well). On the Fourth of July we went over to a party and partook in some Wii Mario Party fun as well as having our first experience with the Xbox version of Rock Band.

Now, I never got it - I just couldn’t understand the draw of that game (or Guitar Hero for that matter). And then I saw it in action. Four of my friends were up there singing, drumming, and rocking out on guitar and bass. It looked like such a blast, but I couldn’t bring myself to try it: They had so many hours invested in their band - I didn’t want to ruin things within 30 seconds (that and I was too afraid to embarrass myself on Medium, having never tried Easy before. Yet, I had so much fun watching them play.

My hubby and I talked about getting the game and how much fun we could have. But, it would draw away from our original intent of getting a Wii*. (*Late the next night we learned that the Wii Rock Band had just been released.)

Saturday we Age of Conan’ed it for about eight hours. We’ve found that it is harder to have an entire day marathon when it comes to AoC. We never had problems playing World of Warcraft for 18 hours straight, but AoC wipes us out after 6 or so. We’ve debated why and all we can come up with is that 1. the text boxes are harder to read, making your eyes strain more; and 2. WoW is bright and cartoonish whereas AoC is going for more lifelike, but it is also, as far as we can tell, a mostly dismal world… A dismal day in real life makes you sleepy, therefore a dismal day in gaming also makes you sleepy. I digress…

Sunday, we debated the options - we were going over to other friends later in the afternoon for more Wii fun. Our morning could be spent playing AoC, or going to the nearest Best and “checking out” the Wii, Wii Rock band and all the Wii paraphernalia. We chose the latter and several hundred dollars later, we were home with our Wii, Rock Band and various accessories. There was just about enough time to get it set up before we went to our friends home - where we had a fabulous dinner and played Mario Party.

By the time we got home around 10 p.m. we were ready to check out Rock Band on our own. The time flew by and before we knew it, it was 2:30 a.m. and I knew I had to call it a night whether I wanted to or not. So… I’m looking forward to more Rock Band fun tonight, and doing my vocal exercises this afternoon to limber up my tone deaf voice. I already have several thoughts on the Wii version of the game, but I’ll save them for a review tomorrow.

Happy gaming!