Rock Band 3

My husband picked up Rock Band 3 the other day. Unfortunately, I haven't had time to play it much. Not to mention that I've had some throat wackiness for the past week, which makes it very difficult to sing. However, I did manage to croak through a few songs Tuesday night. The character creation is OK, but a lot of the default faces are just plain ugly. You need to do a bit of tweaking on the cheeks and jawline to get any sort of prettiness out of them. (At least for the girls. I didn't try to create a male character.) After you finish making your character, each player gets to make their own band. This gives each individual player goals to reach with their band. It also means that each player gets their own rewards. Instead of needing money to purchase upgrades, you win them by playing various gigs. You also get to pick the "stand in" computer players for your band, if you don't have anyone to play with you. (My husband's favorite is Moosejaw - the homeless man that needs to put down the guitar and find some construction employment or something.) I think this makes the whole band experience a lot better.

I've only played the vocals so far. In my opinion, the vocals have gotten a lot better since RB2. I believe they have keyed some of the songs up a bit so they aren't really low anymore. This is awesome for me because I always have problems hitting the very very low notes. (Yes, you can sing an octave up but that sounds wrong.) They've also changed the way spoken words are handled. Well, it's not a huge change. Mostly a visual one. Instead of "notes" to speak, it just shadows that whole section to give you more time to hit the beat.

My husband picked up the keytar yesterday. I plan on finding some time to play around with that so you'll definitely hear more about the new Rock Band in the future!

BlizzCon

BlizzCon ran on Friday and Saturday. First, let me say how weird it is to see a two-day convention that takes place on Friday and Saturday instead of Saturday and Sunday. My husband signed up for the DirecTV pay per view to partake in the geekiness. And, oh, was it geeky. To be honest, we only watched the interesting parts of the show. The opening ceremonies with Chris Metzen's speech, the costume contest, the dance competition, and the Tenacious D concert. Amazingly, Chris Metzen was extraordinarily entertaining. Most of the time, these speeches are done by boring suits or developers with no social skills. You end up wondering when the pain will end. I was very surprised to see Metzen and, even more surprising, I didn't want his speech to end. I was ready to listen to him all day.

Then we saw some boring panel with PowerPoint slides on the new changes that were added to.....I forget what game....Starcraft 2 maybe. I actually turned to my husband and said "You paid to watch some geeks do a PowerPoint presentation on a game? This is lame."

There was some cool things in the costume and dance contests. (I wonder if there were trophies handed out....) There were a lot of people that stupidly wore stilts. They needed help walking down the ramp to the stage. Overall, I was impressed and I was happy with the winners. As for the dance contest, it was silly and fun but one guy did end up getting injured. (It has been debated whether he broke his leg or just dislocated his knee. Either way it sucks.)

Finally, the Tenacious D concert at the closing ceremonies. Of course, they rocked the house. Dave Grohl (from Foo Fighters and Nirvana) played drums for them. If anything, this was the only thing worth the price of pay per view. I would do it again just for the D. Everything else was dull in comparison.

Game review: Dark Tales: Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat

I played the demo for Dark Tales: Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat last night. Before I start talking about the gameplay, I'd like to point out that Big Fish Games no longer offers the hour trial of the game. While you still have 60 minutes to play, you only get a short demo. I was able to finish the demo in about 45 minutes. This annoys me because I used to really get into to game then have it turn off at the 60 minute mark. That forced me into a situation where I had to purchase the game if I wanted to know the rest of the story. With this demo, it stopped at the end of a "scene." Instead of leaving me with a feeling of "OMG. I didn't finish it!", it gave me the feeling of "Well, at least I finished this section." The demo should leave me wanting to buy the game. This change was a terrible idea. Onto the game itself! Despite billing itself as a hidden object game, it is more of a click-and-play action game. There is a lot of instances where you use an object in your possession to find another object to move you forward. For example, you need to find a razor, a tree branch, and a rope to make an item that will help you cut a dog's leash. However, none of these objects are located in a hidden object puzzle. They are all there in plain sight, waiting for you to grab them. I didn't reach any hidden object puzzles until I was about 15 minutes into the game. This might intrigue other people, but it bored me. I hope this is not the new trend in hidden object games.

Game review: Reincarnations: Uncover the Past

Sadly, I did not realize that Reincarnations: Uncover the Past is the second in a series of hidden object games before I started playing it. I think I would have liked to have played the original game first. Anyway, in the game, you play Jane, a woman who has been traveling through time via her past lives. I imagine the first game explains this a bit more. In this game, Jane has been committed to a mental institution. She plans on using her past lives to help her escape.

I found the game to be tons of fun. My favorite parts were where you have to combine objects in order to find something on your list. For example, you need to combine a brush and a boot to make a shiny boot. I also find the different storylines interesting. Each past life has it's own story and problem to solve. This keeps the game fresh so, even though they are the same puzzles, each one has it's own flair.

I actually haven't finished the game yet. I went ahead and got the full version. Hopefully you'll find it as fun as I did!

Xbox 360 slim

My husband picked up the new Xbox 360 yesterday. I haven't had the chance to play any games on it yet, but we did watch a few comedy specials via Netflix. With any luck, we'll be able to play Rock Band 2 on it tonight. I believe all of our files have been converted over. I also bought the 90s version of Lips and a movie trivia game. We're planning on playing those this weekend during my family's Fourth of July picnic. I'll try to post some sort of review on it at some point.

Game review: Virtual Villagers 4: The Tree of Life

Virtual Villagers is one of my favorite games. The fourth game in the series is titled The Tree of Life. Your tribe (from the previous games) is sending out 5 villagers to check out some strange happenings on the island. Instead of randomly assigning you villagers, you get to choose your party. Once you arrive at your destination, you find out that the Tree of Life is dying. It is your job to figure out how to heal the tree. As usual, the gameplay has not changed. All of the commands are exactly the same as the previous incarnations of the game. However, this is not a bad thing. Experienced players can skip the tutorial and jump right into the game with no problems. At the same time, the controls are easy enough the beginners can pick them up quickly.

Besides, the best part of the game is the puzzles. Each version of the game gives you a variety of puzzles for your islanders to solve. It's usually something that will advance your tribe's abilities. For example, "build nets to catch fish" will help your villagers bulk up their food supply. It is so much fun to figure out exactly what you need to do in order to finish all of the puzzles. Meanwhile, there are still collectibles for the children to gather. I haven't finished most of the collections yet, but there is usually a reward once each collection is complete.

I would say this game is aimed at fans of The Sims or other simulation games. Though, if you really enjoy puzzles, you might like this too.

Game review: The Lost Cases of 221B Baker St.

While I was waiting for my laundry to finish yesterday, I decided to give one of the Sherlock Holmes hidden object games a go. Usually these are a little more difficult for a lazy Sunday afternoon, but I had faith that I could finish these puzzles without using my brain too much. I ended up being very surprised at what was presented to me. Instead of one big case you are trying to solve, The Lost Cases of 221B Baker St. is a collection of multiple smaller cases. In the sixty minute time frame of the demo, I was able to finish four different cases. Each case had similar yet different aspects. They each had a hidden object section, a puzzle section, and a memory section. The hidden object section was where you found your clues and, generally, one clue is messed up. This is where the puzzle section comes in. Sometimes you are piecing together a ripped up piece of paper; sometimes you are trying to slide a rock piece out of a box...each one is different. After you have found all of your clues, you move onto the memory section, where you figure out who is the suspect. Each suspect is attributed to a clue and it is your job to remember which clue goes to which suspect. You need to pick out the clue that has changed to eliminate that suspect.

I found the game much more interesting than other Sherlock Holmes games. There is usually a lot more exposition, which limits your actual game time. With this game, you can actually choose to play a version that has less dialogue. I prefer to get down to the game, myself. I can't wait to buy the full version of this game to see what the other cases have to offer.

Game review: Alice in Wonderland

A few months ago, I reviewed an Alice in Wonderland themed time management game. Despite how difficult that game was, I gave into my love for all things Alice and tried the hidden object Alice in Wonderland game. While the storyline wasn't quite Alice in Wonderland, it was very similar. Your character recently purchased a new house. In the basement, you find a portal to another world. In one of the rooms upstairs, you find a newspaper article about some missing girls. Much to your surprise, you find one of the missing girls in the other world! It is up to you to travel to the strange world and save all of the missing girls.

As should be expected from a Wonderland game, this isn't just a plain hidden object game. Some of the objects need to be put together before you can use them. Some of the parts for these 'bigger' objects aren't even in the same room. However, you do get slight hints when that happens. (The items turn red when you aren't in the same room as the object.) This makes the game a little more difficult, yet not so difficult that it is annoying. There are also a few mini-games - letters that need to be pieced together or gears that need to be lined up. (I fully admit that I sucked at the gears and frequently skipped that part.)

I love when games add little things like these to separate them from the run of the mill games. And I love it even more when they do it well enough to make the game fun and interesting instead of aggravating. I had tons of fun playing and I think you will too.

Game review: Alice's Teacup Madness

In an attempt get myself geared up for Tim Burton's "Alice," I loaded up Alice's Teacup Madness from Big Fish Games. Of course, Alice is back in Wonderland. This time she has to earn some money to get back home. (Yes, I know it is a rather ridiculous plot. Bear with me.) The White Rabbit sets her up with a tea shop so she can brew up some of the best tea in Wonderland. The similarities between this game and Cake Mania are painfully obvious right from the beginning. However, Alice tries to up the difficulty level. Instead of being able to carry more than one item at a time, you can drag your mouse across the 'set up area.' For example, if you need strawberries put on two teacups, you click on the strawberry then drag it across both cups. The problem comes when you try to serve the tea. Alice still can't carry more than one thing at a time! So if you have three customers waiting for their order, you need to run back and forth to get it. Alice should be able to carry at least two teacups or baked items at once to make it easier on herself!

On top of that, there are three different types of cups, three different types of tea, and at least two different types of tea toppings. That doesn't even take the baked items into account! Adding all of these different combinations to Alice's lack of waitressing skills, the game is a little too difficult for its own good. Yes, the beginning levels are very easy, as they should be. It's when you get to the higher levels that you realize how messed up everything is.

Game review: Artist Colony

Since we were snowed in all weekend, I decided to waste some time playing Artist Colony. It looked a lot like Virtual Villagers. Since I really enjoyed that series, this should be fun too, right? Well, it's mostly fun. As with most simulation games, there is a set of goals that the characters need to finish. The story is about a group of artists coming together to rebuild an old artists' colony. (There's a backstory about friendship and love, but it's not really all that necessary to the game play.) You get money to complete tasks by selling the artists' works. Since you begin with only two artists, it's a little difficult to raise money. However, once you start attracting new artists to the colony, things can really get moving. Then it ends up being a little difficult to keep track of everyone. On top of that, I found myself getting bored with the tedious task of training the artist and having them create masterpieces to sell. Perhaps if the selling part went a little faster, the creating part wouldn't be so dull. As it was, I ended up with artists that couldn't create anything because I filled up my gallery yet no one was coming to buy anything.

Overall, it was a decent game. There were little annoyances, but I could easily overlook them. If nothing else, I wanted to see what the end result was.