New D&D Books

Simpson’s Paradox finds some good things about life back in the US, like D&D and a new local gameshop

New D&D rulebooks came out while we were in China, so of course we had to get those. We went to a new games store called The Game Connection near Stick’s parents’ house. It was definitely a family games store, the shoppers we saw were moms looking for birthday gifts, not goth boys buying Whitewolf. A lot of card games and miniatures, and the owner really seemed to enjoy explaining different games to the moms.

Via Game Connection, Waffle House

For Musical Geeks

Play your own ocarina music!

Zelda fans who happen to be musically inclined may want to stop by ThinkGeek. The popular online store is now stocking blue, glazed earthenware ocarinas. Each ocarina has the triforce insignia in gold on the mouthpiece and comes with a songbook filled with Legend of Zelda sheet music.

They’re a bit expensive though - each ocarina is $39.99. However, you also earn 425 Geek Points if you buy one, which you can put towards discounts on store items or free items. So if you buy an ocarina, you could get Singing Monkey Balls free.

Via ThinkGeek promotes music with ocarinas - Gamertell

Photos from your Wii

Sadly this is one of those crazy toys that’s available only in Japan.

Not that the Big N hasn’t snubbed the vast majority of the world before with these channel releases, but folks holed up everywhere save for Japan have yet another one they can only look longingly at from afar. Thanks to a new partnership between Nintendo and Fujifilm, the Wii Digicam Print Channel is immediately available for Japanese Wii consoles to access, which essentially gives owners the ability to upload images from SD cards and receive customized prints, photo books, business cards, etc..

Via RSS fabriek » Blog Archive » Fujifilm, Nintendo bring photo printing service to Japanese Wiis

My Sims

This is a really fun game for anyone that likes the sims and anyone that doesn’t, one trhing that bothers me though, is it the game or the wii thats slowing down? cause the game is really starting to lag for w/e reason.

The Increadible Hulk

I don’t know if i could play this game, i mean, the movie was great and i don’t want to ruin the experiance.

Democracy 2

A new government strategy game, Democracy 2.

Democracy 2 has a bit of a slow start, because with so many options and so many possibilities it’s hard to get a handle on what everything does. It’s a government strategy game, which isn’t a new genre, but Democracy has almost endless options.

My country, Malaganga, started with some problems, and my goal was to eliminate disease and street crime, without alienating any voters. In Civ4, my usual strategy game, your citizens will tell you that religion makes them happy, and if you’re really successful, they’ll throw a celebration in your honor. (I particularly like “We love the despot!” day.) In Democracy2, your constituents are divided into smaller interest groups, like Liberals, Socialists, Wealthy, Drivers or Smokers, and your actions affect each group differently. A tax on emissions pleases Environmentalists but annoys others, free school buses please Parents, but the Tobacco tax to pay for the buses doesn’t go over so well. In addition to passing laws, random events come up, and you’ve got decide who to appoint for foreign relations, or whether to allow genetically modified produce. I really liked the random events. Sometimes a pop star would endorse me, and once a vigilante superhero appeared (I guess I had some street crime problems).

Via Simpson’s Paradox

WoW Warrior Info

Check out this WarCraft warrior guide!

Warriors are by far the most popular class on World of Warcraft and for many reasons. They are the class that do the most melee damage over a period of time, wear the heaviest armors, and take the most damage. Most new users opt to go for warriors for these reasons, along with the great design of armors and weapons there are to choose from for this class.

A good 90% of the races can play as warriors which make them the most accessible class available. Heavy armors and shielding is used, and this class is usually used as a “tank”. A tank is a term that describes the characteristic of one who can take a lot of damage. This is good for party or guild use, so that warriors are in front of the pack- and divert all the damage and spells to them, instead of weaker classes such as healers or mages.

Via World of Warcraft Help - Warriors | World of Warcraft Help

Google Unveils Lively

Wonderland: Lively has this to say about Google’s new Lively:

It seems at first glance to be rather exactly along the lines of MetaPlace and Whirled, although I’m sure there will be differences on investigation. The avatars look like Bratz. Some of the rooms look like Home.

See for yourself!

Creating Legos

This video shows something that very few people have had the opportunity to witness: the inside of the Lego factory, with no barriers or secrets. I filmed every step in the creation of the brick. From the raw granulate stored in massive silos to the molding machines to the gigantic storage cathedrals to the decoration and packaging warehouses, you will be able to see absolutely everything, including the most guarded secret of the company: the brick molds themselves.

Via Gizmodo :: Inside the Lego Factory

Old game, still scares the crap out of me: Alien vs. Predator

Remember that time before it was all about photo-realistic graphics, cinematic special effects, life-like physics? This is a game from that time, but it sets itself apart by actually excelling in the areas just listed, albeit with slightly subdued adjectives.

Alien vs. Predator (Gold) is the first in a series of FPS games and was revolutionary in the detail and quality it displayed. Despite the now outdated graphics, the sheer atmosphere created sets you in the centre of the Alien, Predator, Human conflict. You simply cannot go wrong when DARKNESS is the essential style element. Slipping into the role of any of the species, each with their abilities faithfully recreated, you stumble into convoluted bases and caverns, always anticipating to have your skull torn off by the next enemy. This game is scary, you are always on edge, the encounters are not preprogrammed, so you cannot just hide somewhere and destroy until they stop coming. No, you have to push forward, realize that you are vastly outnumbered, and survive.

The game is so well thought of that even the fish-eye vision and their ability to walk on walls is recreated. Strategically sophisticated players can even shoot out lights to disorient enemies as you lay in ambush.

Where the game especially shines is in multiplayer mode. There is nothing more fun than turning on your heat vision as a Predator, and destroying pesky humans limb by limb, especially if your helpless buddies are those humans.

This game can be found for mere cents in an used games store. I strongly recommend it.

Power-Up!

Power-Up!

Super Mario Bros: Power Up Energy Drink

Power Up is a video game tie-in from Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. The drink comes in an 8.4oz can and has been round for some years. It caused a bit of a storm with some media outlets claiming that the drink was being targeted to kids. In this particular story - a dad purchased it for his 6 year old son. A 6 year old boy with 80mg caffeine in him would not be pretty.

Available from Xoxide or Amazon.

(Again with blaming videogames for bad parenting choices!)

Via 11 Cartoon and Video Game Energy Drinks

E3 Toys From Kotaku

If you can’t make it to E3, you can still win cool swag from Kotaku.

It’s the E3 Eve and just about all of Kotaku is either in LA right now or on their way there. This year’s E3 might be a shortened affair, one that only runs Monday through Thursday, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t going to be tons of news breaking, including a couple of surprises, and lots of amazing games shown off.

As always we will be liveblogging the big press conferences, starting with Microsoft tomorrow morning, here on Kotaku. This year round we will be using our new liveblog software which should make for a steadier flow of information, more pics and tons more analysis. To celebrate we’ve decided to giveaway three batches of impressive swag at each conference. What are we giving away? I don’t want to spill the beans quite yet, but I can say it includes some autographed things, some limited edition numbered items and even an original game-themed oil canvas.

Check out their liveblog, comment and win!

Via E308: Check Out Our E3 Liveblogs, Win Fabulous Prizes

Writing About Games

Does writing about games turn gaming into work? I imagine that doing anything everyday could lead to burnout and having deadlines seems to fight against the gamer schedule. But overall, how does affect gamers’ relationship to the games they write about?

Over at Gamers With Jobs, Julian Murdoch looks at the craft of writing about games — and how being a gaming journalist has improved his relationship with games. While I’ve found writing about games has significantly cut into my time I can spend playing games — and there’s a difference between playing for pleasure and playing for pay — I’ll agree with many of Murdoch’s thoughts in regards to going into situations with a new perspective, one that is frequently quite positive:

This self-conscious focus on both the game and the gamer is an unadulterated good. Playing games now brings a joy of personal intellectual exploration, in addition to the joys of escapism, mastery and conquest. There is no doubt in my mind that my enjoyment of BioShock was substantially magnified because I went into the game thinking, not just passively waiting to experience. How it was made? Who made it? Where the threads were that I could pull on, and discover how much fabric was really there?

Writing about games has taken me from the role of dreamer into the world of the lucid dreamer. Where once I woke from moments of seeming glory, grasping at the fading fragrance of what was right there just a moment ago, now I emerge from a game startled and awake, reaching for the pad of paper, struggling to synthesize the experience in a new form – a form hardened by an edge of language.

Via The Pleasure of Writing About Games, original post here Pinning Butterflies

Wizard 101 Beta

Looks like I’m a month late on this one, since the press release is dated June 11th. But you can still sign up for the beta!

Online entertainment company KingsIsle Entertainment, Inc announced today the beta launch of Wizard101, a virtual world designed for tween and teen audiences. In the expansive virtual world, beta testers will find themselves exploring a magical world in the role of apprentice wizard at the Ravenwood School of Magical Arts.

Prospective game testers are invited to sign up for the beta at www.Wizard101.com. Wizard101 was designed to fill the void between online play sites for the very young and massively multiplayer online games with mature ratings. The first beta testers have now joined the large cast of fantastical in-game characters for adventure and magic spell-collecting fun. Over the coming weeks, beta testers are invited to play the game and provide feedback to KingsIsle in advance of Wizard101’s expected release in the third quarter of 2008.

Wizard101 features fantasy adventure and collectible card-style game play plus fun arcade mini-games. Under the direction of noted online game developer J. Todd Coleman, Wizard101 has been designed for collaborative play in which players benefit from playing together. A tiered chat system and pre-defined naming system is in place to create a safe online environment for tween and teen audiences while still providing engaging entertainment for the entire family.

Has anyone heard of KingsIsle before? I don’t think I have.

Via Wizard101 Beta Launch

Free Trial PC Games

Nowadays, people were exposed to technologies. Computers are everywhere. Machines conquered to help mankind. Computers have different functions. But for me, it’s my form of entertainment and communication.

When you browse in one of the search engine like Yahoo!, you can see the category Games there. Just click it and there it goes! You can now choose which games you want to play. There’s an image and a short descriptions about the game to help you pick.

You can play it for free. Yes, just by downloading it and have a 60 minutes trial.But if you exceeds, you have now to pay for you to play. But the catch there is, at least you enjoy playing even in an hour. Why not try?

I tried the games Luxor, Sally Salon, Mystery Files, Jeopardy and Jojo’s Fashion Week. Among these, my favorite is Luxor. I like how it’s being played, its graphics, and especially the sound effects. Because the sounds added thrills to the game.

My partner wants Jeopardy to be played by us. It’s a competition game on which one should win the game. You have to answer the trivia questions correctly. It’s the same concept with the one on TV.

I really enjoy to have free trial PC games. Aside from entertainment it brings, it can also keep people closer together. It can be an activity for family or friends to be bond.

Kudos LifeSim

This thoughtful discussion of the Kudos sim game says it’s more than another Sims-clone:

Kudos is not animated, its graphics are mainly icons, little squares showing your friends’ faces or items for purchase. It’s not entirely text-based, but the focus is on the story, and not the graphics. If you don’t spend enough time cleaning up your house, though, a surprisingly realistic fly crawls across the screen! I am of the text-games generation, and a bookworm at heart, so Kudos has gotten the text:graphics ratio just right.

Your avatar has a limited number of leisure hours, and a collection of leisure activities. You can go out with friends, watch TV, go jogging, go to night school, or stay home and stare at the walls. (yes, that’s an option, and no, I didn’t do it). Each activity has positives and negatives, but they go beyond the simplistic “tv makes you fat”. Watching the news, for example, increased my IQ, and decreased my boredom, but all those depressing stories made me sad.

SIMS world

I used to be a thumb-god in SIMS. I can spend long hours just by playing this game. What I loved about this game is it brings out the creativity in me. Except of course the eye-strain that I get for the long hours of staring at the monitor.

I am so amazed on how creators came up with a 3D game like SIMS. I can be as creative as I want with the designs of the houses I built. Although I have cheat codes, I still manage to come up with good designs.

I love the part where the husband and wife need to kiss several times until they conceive. When the baby is born, both parents have to take care of the baby. I remember during the first few days that I have been playing it, I found a job for the husband. The wife and baby stays home. In order for the baby to grow, mom and dad should nurse the baby. Feed, dance and sing with the baby. If not, a social worker will claim the child. So what I did in order for the child not to be taken away, I built a room to surround the child from being taken by the social worker. hehe, it worked!

I just love playing SIMS. At my age, this game is still fun. You should try it, too.