i'm aliiiiiiiiive

It's been so too long since I last posted and I have so many good topics to write on so I seriously will be back posting regularly after this summer hiatus. I really appreciate ANY readers out there and wish I hadn't been slacking so much this summer, since I managed to win a blog award (see at right)! I know it's not much but it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to know that my blog is useful to peeps out there.

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syberia review

I just finished playing Syberia and I can honestly say it's been awhile since I've had the pleasure of playing through a game that was so enjoyable and challenging throughout! Syberia is a true classic point-and-click adventure game and I constantly found myself comparing it to what I consider the pinnacle of adventure gaming, the Gabriel Knight series.

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i support all girl gamers

I mean it when I say that. I don't care if you play the games I play, you love sports games, ultra-girl-oriented games. I'm just glad that girls play games. Which is why I was slightly tickled (if not, to use her words, annoyed) to find a mention of my lil' blog at a new video game blog called OneGirlGamer. As I said, I'm happy to see anything out there about games from a girl's perspective but apparently she doesn't quite feel the same way!

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no wii HD on the horizon

Those of us out there that try to defend the Wii as a valid gaming console have less hope for near-future advancements now that Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata has denied any rumors of an HD Wii in development. In his mind, the addition of high definition graphics capability would not be enough to make a new Wii console stand out and sell successfully.

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hotel dusk: last window?

If you read this blog at all you know I love point-and-click adventure games more than any other genre. I'm always on the lookout for great games that I missed in the past as some of the best adventure games are older titles. Still, occasionally new games come out that make me jump for joy because of their commitment to preserving the wonderful tradition of point-and-click. One company whose game I have really taken a liking for is Cing, who developed Trace Memory and Hotel Dusk: Room 215 for the Nintendo DS. Imagine my surprise and thrill when my boyfriend clued me into to recent development news on a Hotel Dusk sequel! Apparently titled Last Window, the DS game is not strictly a sequel but does star my favorite video game anti-hero Kyle Hyde in a plot that occurs a year after the events of the original Hotel Dusk game. Last Window will also make reference to characters from the previous game. Gameplay elements will likely be very similar with a few changes including rumble-pak support. As a huge fan of the first Hotel Dusk game I will for sure be pre-ordering this one... whenever it gets a North American release date, anyway!

Last Window DS - New Details

finally finished professor layton 2

I have to admit, I've been playing Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box almost exclusively since I got it and with 22 hours logged into the DS game, I finally reached the end! I did my best to play the game through completely and while I have not yet ventured back out into the game to find the last few things I didn't do, I feel pretty good about my efforts. I found and solved 136 of 138 puzzles, completed the camera and hamster mini games and the subsequent camera-photo hidden puzzle minigame, and unlocked three of the five Layton's Challenges options in the Bonus section. I thoroughly enjoyed the Diabolical Box and found it to be a fun and innovative followup to Professor Layton and the Curious Village. If I had to find one fault with the game I would agree with reviews I read that criticize the seemingly random use of voice acting - it isn't just in cutscenes but it isn't in every scene and sometimes it's like one character gets a voice actor and the one he's talking to doesn't... plus the voice acting was just a wee bit questionable what with every voice being obviously a Japanese actor behind it despite what the accent was supposed to be. Nevertheless, this game was totally awesome and I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves challenging puzzle games and cute animation and music, whether you've played the first game or not. Two thumbs up for sure.

professor layton & the diabolical box

This is a great week for game releases, mostly because today is the ship date for one of the year's most anticipated DS titles, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box! The long-awaited followup to the runaway/sleeper hit of 2008 Professor Layton and the Curious Village is actually the second title in a trilogy chronicling the adventures of Layton and his young apprentice Luke. The series sells like crazy in Europe and the third one is already topping Japanese sales charts. The original title was one of the first games I played after getting my DS and it remains one of my favorites, and one of a select group of games that I actually repurchased after trading in initially. The game is full of challenging brain-teasers (some easy, and some insanely hard) and is set against a beautiful Euro-themed village setting. I have been replaying the first game to remind myself of its plot and have found it immensely enjoyable to see the lovely animation style and listen to the adorable atmospheric soundtrack again. I have already paid off my copy of Diabolical Box and plan to pick it up tomorrow after what will most likely be a very long day of working both jobs from 9 am to 10 pm. But at least with this release I have something to look forward to taking home once my shift's over!

pokemon ds remakes headed to US

The long-anticipated remakes of second-generation Pokemon games Gold and Silver now have a release window and are expected to arrive in the North American market sometime during spring of 2010. The new titles remade for the Nintendo DS are Pokemon HeartGold and Pokemon SoulSilver; these new versions of the GameBoy Color games released nearly 10 years ago will feature updated graphics and sound as well as newly added touch controls. Gold and Silver introduced a ton of new monsters, pokemon breeding and a day-and-night system tied to real time. With these upcoming DS releases a whole new generation of Pokemon addicts will get to experience the original metallic Pokemon titles.

Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver headed to America this Spring

busy busy lately

It's been over a week since I posted anything here and I am setting out to break this bad habit I've fallen into. Things have been crazy busy for me between my two jobs and, well, it's summer and there are more fun places to spend time than in front of a computer writing a blog. Still, I am doing my best to find time to get some gaming in here and there. I have been playing quite a bit of Sims 3 lately and finally took the chance on setting up a Sim with the Evil trait. In fact, he is not only Evil but also Insane and Inappropriate! These traits really do make for some hilarious situations, like the friendly interaction options of "Talk About Conspiracies" (his brother is Neurotic so this is their favorite conversation topic) and "Speak Madness", which has become my go-to social interaction to use. In addition to the Sims I also managed to get a perfect score and a medal on the Crop Stomp level of Rhythm Heaven that has plagued me for a long time. It definitely helps sometimes to take some time off from a game and approach it again later. I've also been doing a fair amount of rocking out in Guitar Hero, which coincidentally has a prominent cameo in Orphan, the (very scary and disturbing) movie I saw last night.

gaming news from all over

BioWare creative officer says violence not required in games with good stories, but seems to occur more often than not. I think the distinction between games involving some fighting and games with realistic violence is an important one here.

Police are still searching for 2 gunmen implicated in video game store robbery. The men stole merchandise and over $1,000 in cash from a GameStop just before closing time armed with a rifle and a pistol.

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is setting PSP sales records. The Capcom title has sold over 3.5 million copies since its release in October 2008 and is the first PSP title to reach this sales level.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will be Adults Only in Japan. The M-for-mature DS game will be the first title on Nintendo's handheld console to receive the Japanese Z rating when it launches there this fall.

Sony CEO Howard Stringer dismisses claims that the PS3 is still too expensive. "I [would] lose money on every Playstation I make," Stringer responds to calls for a price drop.

pedometer no worky

So I've really been enjoying using Personal Trainer: Walking to keep track of my daily walking/step activity and one of the best things about it is wearing the pedometer all day as a motivator to rack up the steps. I had one of my busiest days in awhile yesterday between work and finishing up a move to a new apartment so I was really looking forward to seeing my daily activity last night, but unfortunately when I took the pedometer out of my pocket the little green light was no longer flashing. Not sure what happened but it totally stopped working - it won't connect to the DS cartridge at all, making both the pedometer and the game pretty much useless. Luckily I bought this game not too long ago and am good about keeping receipts so I should be able to get a new one but I'm a little concerned that I'll have the same thing happen with a new pedometer... Hopefully not as the boyfriend's is working just fine. I'm a firm believer in the quality of Nintendo products so hopefully it's not a matter of shoddy craftsmanship. Boo.

shut UP grease the game??

I can't even bring myself to say something snarky about this: it looks like there is a Grease game being developed for the Wii and DS! Preliminary reports make it sound like the Grease video game will incorporate singing, motion controls and a general swingin' sense of the 1950s. The developers of this game are 505 Games, who brought Cooking Mama to market in the past. There's no release date as of yet but it will most likely end up as a holiday launch. I think I will make a point to at least try this one out. Hopefully the game will include a dancing level where you get to be Cha Cha DiGregorio!

Should we expect a sing-along karaoke experience? A '50s-rhythm-high-school-gang-fight game (we hope so)? Or some sort of mutant vaguely misogynistic platformer? Perhaps all three?

Summer Lovin': Grease the video game coming to a Nintendo near you

personal trainer: walking

I’ve been using Personal Trainer: Walking on my DS for a couple of weeks now and I have to say I am really enjoying it. It’s kind of like a tiny version of Wii Fit – you even use Miis (either wirelessly imported from your Wii or created on the DS). The included pedometers are small and not a bother to carry around, plus uploading your day’s walking data is literally as easy as pushing a button on the pedometer. My boyfriend and I have been carrying them around and while I have been pleasantly surprised with how many steps I take on an average day (generally between 4,000 and 6,000 with a daily target of 3,000) he’s averaging more like 9,000 to 14,000! The game gives you an easy-to-read spectrum of your day’s activity, rated by how often and for how long you walked. It even assigns time of day and animal comparisons to each day’s activity – for example, an early day full of nonstop walking with little breaks makes you a Morning Horse. All in all if you’re a fan of fitness games and you want to get an idea of just how much ground you cover every day, Personal Trainer: Walking is a pretty good buy!

people love cooking video games

Okay, no, people don't love to cook video games, but recent title releases do seem to indicate a growing interest in video games about cooking. Much like some gamers enjoy the simulation of jamming out in a band in Guitar Hero, some enjoy doing simulated food preparation and cooking, on the Wii and DS mostly but also on the PC. All the fun, none of the mess (...or actual food). While many cooking games like Cooking Mama, Hell's Kitchen and Diner Dash are aimed at challenging the gamer with scenarios involved in cooking and serving food, cooking has made its way into the self-improvement non-game genre as well with Personal Trainer: Cooking, which holds several hundred recipes from around the world with detailed instructions on prep and cooking. You can even follow along with the game's chef as he walks you through the process of each recipe as you cook it. When it comes to the casual game market, cooking is clearly a niche that brings enjoyment to many gamers.

Video Games: Now They're Cookin'

rhythm heaven is so awesome

I have been neglecting my DS lately (it was to be expected with Sims 3 coming out, of course) but I picked it up the other day and revisited my game in Rhythm Heaven, Nintendo's strange and wonderful music/rhythm game on the DS. It's one of those games that is so simple that it's easy to forget how much fun it is, but it truly is a good time. I managed to get through the mercifully short second remix and unlock the third column of games. I got through the love lizards game which is adorable and hilarious (success in the mating dance game = babies!) and am now working on the stomp farmer which is a bit more difficult. I also unlocked a couple of prizes by getting opportunistically-timed perfect scores in certain levels, a nice extra feature that gives the game more depth and more replay value (though it is not lacking for this on its own). If you are a DS fan and haven't tried Rhythm Heaven, pick it up soon, you won't regret it!

lux-pain: definitely weird

I had a chance to try out Lux-Pain on the DS over the weekend and it definitely belongs on the list of the weirdest DS games out there! I had wanted to give Lux-Pain a try ever since I read about it before it came out so I’m glad I got to play it though I can’t say I’ll be putting a lot of time into it. I like the storyline and the graphics are kind of cool but the English translation and voiceover don’t always match up and the gameplay seems like it might get a little stale. All in all Lux-Pain has an interesting story but will only hold the attention of the most diehard fans of scary DS games due to its slightly crappy mechanics.

just finished theresia

I finished playing through the 'Dear Emile' campaign of Theresia on the DS last night and man, what a great game! All I can say is I wish there were more M-for-mature DS games out there like this one. Theresia has a hauntingly beautiful ambience to it with appropriately creepy yet pretty music, beautiful animation, logical gameplay mechanics and a seriously dark and engaging plot. Beating 'Dear Emile' unlocks another campaign, 'Dear Martel', as well as a viewable diary that provides more information about the game's story. This game can get kind of slow-going and is definitely a challenge when it comes to puzzles and traps but it really is worth it for the beautifully told story of the tragic heroine and her life. Two thumbs up for sure!

rhythm heaven is awesome

It’s been a long month and a half since Rhythm Heaven was released for the Nintendo DS but I finally got my hands on a copy and let me tell you, the wait was worth it! Rhythm Heaven is so much fun. Comprised of simple yet deceptively challenging little music and rhythm games, Rhythm Heaven demands some serious concentration and pinpoint accuracy at times so start working on your stylus flicks. The animation style is adorable and “wiggly” with simple stick-figure graphics that leave room for the gameplay mechanics to really shine. Prepare to be challenged and frustrated but also motivated as the game will occasionally entice you with unlockable prizes for achieving perfect scores. All in all, Rhythm Heaven is an extremely fun game title for guy and girl gamers of all ages who like to jam out to cute little songs.

personal trainer: walking

It's not often that a game has a title as seemingly obvious, dim-witted and heavy-handed as Personal Trainer: Walking and can still make me excited for its upcoming release. Yes, we all know how to walk and the jokes are endless - what's next, Personal Trainer: Breathing? etc. Still, I had a chance to scope this one out recently and at least according to the box art it looks super awesome. The latest in the Personal Trainer series of DS games comes bundled with two small personal pedometers which can be kept in a pocket or purse to record your daily walking habits and keep track of your pace, distance covered and other metrics. The latest entry in the growing genre of fitness/self-improvement games, Personal Trainer: Walking will launch this Tuesday. I maintain my opinion that gamers as a demographic are an excellent target for these fitness-oriented titles and should embrace them!

amazing - human tetris

I have gotten pretty addicted to Tetris DS and as a tribute, I'd like to share an awesome video I just came across. Presenting, human beings playing Tetris... as tetriminos!