Game review: Agatha Christie: Peril at End House

While I was never a fan of Agatha Christie's novels, I have found myself drawn to adaptations of her novels. It was Agatha Christie no Meitantei Poirot to Marple (Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple), the 39-episode anime series, that first drew me into the world of Hercule Poirot. This time I found myself playing the Agatha Christie: Peril at End House video game. Peril at End House is the story of the attempted murder of Nick Buckley. As Poirot, you must unravel the mystery of who would try to kill the current owner of End House and why they would even bother as the estate is rapidly falling apart. Each of the main levels are basic hidden object games. However, in between each level, you are given different types of puzzles in order to find more clues to direct you to a suspect.

I really enjoyed this game. The hidden object levels are difficult enough to make you think yet still easy enough to keep you from getting frustrated. That difficult-yet-easy rating follows through to the in-between levels. Sometimes you will need to match a suspect to a clue, which means you need to pay attention to all of the clues you come upon in the main levels. Sometimes there will be a ripped newspaper clipping that you will need to put back together. Sometimes it will be trying to figure out the combination to a safe. All of these tasks have a hint of difficulty in them but they are still easy enough if you pay attention to the clues. I have to say that I can't wait for the next Agatha Christie game to come out. I hope it's just as fun as this was.

Favorite.....Friday?

Since my birthday fell on Friday and I decided I wasn't going to do any work at all, I completely missed Favorite Friday. Instead, I will give you this week's Favorite Friday video on Saturday. Barenaked Ladies is one of my very favorite bands. It's extremely difficult for me to pick just one video to post for you. This is from Ed's "Bathroom Sessions," a series of performances from his newly remastered bathroom. I chose this particular song because Ed (the one with the guitar) and Steve (the one without the guitar) have such a wonderful time singing this song. I hope you take a moment to go through the rest of the Bathroom Sessions performances.

Music review: Green Day - St. Jimmy

americanidiot.jpgArtist: Green Day Members: Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals, guitar), Mike Dirnt (bass, vocals), Tre Cool (drums) Album: American Idiot Release date: 9/21/04 Video link: Via YouTube

Lyrics: St. Jimmy's comin' down across the alleyway Up on the boulevard like a zip gun on parade Light of a silhouette He's insubordinate Coming at you on the count of 1,2,1,2,3,4!

My name is Jimmy and you better not wear it out Suicide commando that your momma talked about King of the forty thieves And I'm here to represent That needle in the vein of the establishment

I'm the patron saint of the denial With an angel face and a taste for suicidal

Cigarettes and ramen and a little bag of dope I am the son of a bitch and Edgar Allen Poe Raised in the city under a halo of lights The product of war and fear that we've been victimized

I'm the patron saint of the denial With an angel face and a taste for suicidal

ARE YOU TALKING TO ME?

I'll give you something to cry about.

ST. JIMMY!

My name is St. Jimmy I'm a son of a gun I'm the one that's from the way outside I'm a teenage assassin executing some fun In the cult of the life of crime.

I really hate to say it but I told you so So shut your mouth before I shoot you down old boy Welcome to the club and give me some blood And the resident leader at the lost and found

It's comedy and tragedy It's St. Jimmy And that's my nameeeeeee...and don't wear it out! About the song: St. Jimmy is from Green Day's rock opera album American Idiot. All of the songs from the album go together to form a larger story so it's a little bit difficult to talk about some of the songs individually.

St. Jimmy is one of the characters in the rock opera. While the band will not talk about their interpretations of the lyrics, a lot of fans think St. Jimmy is an alter-ego of the Jesus of Suburbia character. The Jimmy personality is filled with violence and drugs where the JoS personality is merely a bored suburban kid.

I'd definitely recommend that everyone listens to the entire American Idiot at least once. It's an awesome album.

Game review: Rock Band

Generally, I don't play a lot of console games. However, I really loved playing the Karaoke Revolution series on our PS2 and my husband loves the Guitar Hero series. So when we first heard about Rock Band, we knew we had to have it. My husband and my daughter went to the midnight release Monday night/Tuesday morning in order to be fully prepared for some Tuesday morning jamming. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, I'll try to explain it a bit. You and up to three friends play different instruments to form the perfect rock band. The game comes with a drum set, a guitar and a microphone. The guitar controller from Guitar Hero can be used to fill in for the bass. You don't have to physically be with your friends to play either. The game has online capabilities so, for example, my husband and I can play with our friends who live in Mississippi.

I got to play a bit last night. As I already said, I like karaoke games. Immediately I was dubbed the singer of our band, which is fine with me! My husband took the guitar part. (My five-year old daughter wanted to play the drums with us but she'll have to wait until she practices some more.) Together, we toured a couple of different cities and performed a bunch of songs. I absolutely love this game. The songs are kickass, the controllers are easy to use and it's just a really fun time.

After a few band performances, my husband took a World of Warcraft break. I decided to give the drums a try. Under normal circumstances, I'm not very coordinated. That's why I don't play the guitar in any musical games. Most of the games leave me frustrated and unwilling to learn how to use the controllers properly. While it was a little difficult starting the drums due to my inability to move my feet and my hands at the same time, I still found it to be extremely enjoyable. I actually want to practice more so I can be a real Rock Band drummer!

If you really love music or have always dreamed of being in a rock band, this would be the perfect game for you. Yes, it is on the expensive side but I think the game is worth the high price tag.

Sending Holiday Cards To Our Troops

The Gallery Collection, a Corporate Holiday Cards Company, has created a gift in support of Solders' Angels, a group of volunteers that provides aide and comfort to men and women in various branches of the United States armed forces. They donated cards to be sent to each soldier to wish them happy holidays as well as giving them a card to send home to their families. These cards will be sent with care packages provided by Soldiers' Angels. There are multiple ways you can help Soldiers' Angels. By "adopting" a soldier, you commit to sending him/her one card or letter each week and at least one or two care packages per month. If you do not have the resources for that sort of commitment, you can join one of the various teams that provides different types of support or you can give a financial donation. Either way, I'm sure our troops would love to receive something from home during the holidays.

The Gallery Collection has a great assortment of business greeting cards. Please continue the holiday tradition by sending greeting cards to your friends, family and colleagues.

Music review: Asian Kung-Fu Generation - Kimi to iu Hana

akg.jpgArtist: Asian Kung-Fu Generation Members: Kensuke Kita, Masafumi Goto, Takahiro Yamada, Kiyoshi Ijichi Album: Kimi Tsunagi Five M Release date: 11/19/03 Video link: Via YouTube

English translation: In the despair of a transparent foam My spinning heart looped Moving forward somehow, unconcerned A hesitant story Always losing something Then we’ll know today Moving forward somehow, meaninglessly A hesitant story In short, everything was smashed up

In our transparent desires My heart that is dying out, looped Moving forward somehow, unconcerned A hesitant story For how long will we lose things? You know the real me, that I was hiding Moving forward somehow, meaninglessly A hesitant story

In short, everything was smashed up In short, it was dancing in the wind A drop shining in your eyes Ah, thunder in the blue sky If there is only pain, then it’s divided between us, that’s right The color of the two of us Until our white breath runs out That road that we flew over From atop a hill, I can see a flower called "you" That has bloomed in the city, and will bloom again

In short, everything was smashed up In short, it was dancing in the wind A drop shining in your eyes Ah, thunder in the blue sky If there is only pain, then it’s divided between us, that’s right The color of the two of us Until our white breath runs out That road that we flew over From atop a hill, I can see a flower called "you" That has bloomed in the city, and will bloom again

In a color like yours... About the song: AKFG always reminds me of Weezer. They come across as these geeks that know how to rock. That's not bad, it's just unusual for a popular band. This song mostly leaves me speechless. The guitar line is so rocking that most of the time, I'm not even listening to the lyrics. I just let the feeling of the song and the sound of the music wash over me. It's definitely a song that will leave you feeling good after you listen to it.

America's Most Smartest Model - episode 7

Now that we are finally down to the really smart and really pretty models of the bunch, things are starting to get a little more interesting. This week the models were told that they would have a night off to celebrate Daniel's birthday. However, this turns out to the the Edge Challenge. The models needed to network with some important people that Mary Alice put in the club. A majority of the models didn't do so well. In the end, it was VJ that won the hearts of the networking judges. This means that he gets control of the Callback Challenge. Mary Alice tells the models that it's difficult to work with animals and children. So, of course, their Callback Challenge will involve animals. VJ gets to dole out how many minutes each model gets in front of the camera. As the winner, he gets a half hour. He gives Angela 10 minutes, Australian!Rachel 8 minutes, Pickle 6 minutes, Brett 4 minutes, Andre 2 minutes and Daniel one minute. Since Daniel's whining has been getting on everyone's nerves, it is now obvious that they are out to get him sent home.

Next the models get to choose their animals. VJ takes the horse, Angela takes the pygmy goat, Australian!Rachel takes the donkey, Pickle takes the chicken, Brett takes the pig, Andre takes the llama and Daniel is left with the ostrich. From here, things get difficult. The models aren't very good with the animals and the pictures prove it. In my opinion, none of the pictures were particularly good but Mary Alice liked Andre's picture with the llama. He is safe from elimination.

At the elimination that night, the three models called up are Angela, Australian!Rachel and Daniel. Angela is told to stop being a know-it-all and Rachel is told to step it up a bit. Daniel gets the boot. I completely agree with this decision as Daniel has been extremely moody the past few episodes. After the Edge Challenge last night, he was overturning tables and throwing things. It was definitely his time to go.

I'm really excited to see where the next few episodes go. There is now an alliance between Andre, Brett, Pickle and Rachel. Their goal is to get VJ kicked off but VJ seems to be Mary Alice's favorite. Let the drama unfold!

Game review: Hidden Relics

Hidden Relics is another hidden object game at Big Fish Games. This one is slightly different though. You are flying around the world to find antiques that have been stolen. Besides the regular hidden objects in each picture, there could be special hidden objects which require special equipment to find. There were a lot of things I liked about this game. I liked being able to choose which city you could fly to and I enjoyed the regular hidden object game. However, I did not like having to complete puzzles in order to obtain the special equipment in order to find the special hidden objects. The puzzles weren't particularly difficult, they were just tedious and you had to complete the puzzles multiple times to get all of the equipment.

Overall, the game was pretty fun. This is another one that I'd recommend you try but I don't think it would be worth buying.