This episode- I just want to play with my Wii

So I was signing online to my normal nerdy routine, when what do I see when I load up my yahoo messenger? Yes, that's right- an advertisement for the Wii. And since I slacked as normal, I don't have images to go with this article (of mine personally at least). I rrrrreally need to... well, ya know.
Okay now. So moving on.
I went to E3 this year as I already have said.. multiple times already. So, let's skip that formality (or erm, well technically I didn't given what I just said.. But Anyways! whew), and get straight to the good stuff.
I was fortunate enough to play the new Next Gen systems. I won't lie- since I'm horrible at it anyway, I didn't really give too much of a look over at the 360. Yes, it's wonderful. I know all you Halo Addicts, can't get enough of the Xbox. You win a cookie.
It just wasn't too impressive to me. I mean, yeah, for multimedia functionality, sure great. I could just make my computer do the same crap pretty much.
Big effin deal.
Now I will say, that I obviously walked into this thinking "Playstation has the best titles, so I'm sure it will be good."
Perhaps it was FF12 combined with that system that disappointed me a bit. It wasn't as fabulous as I had imagined it would be. They would not let you take any pictures of the game at all. I was holding my digital there for a few minutes before someone came to point my attention to the posted sign. I should've snapped sooner. But, oh well. I hate to say it, but you didn't miss that much.
Ok so maybe part of it was that I just jumped right into combat without any sort of demo. But, come on! Give a gal a break.
So yes, the PS3. Updated graphics engine, a few new features, and oh yes, "the batwing controller."
Yawn yawn yawn.
I want something really new. I want something innovative. Ah yes, the Wii was made for picky b!7che$ like me.
When I'd first seen the Asian version of the commerical for it, back then when it was still called the code name "Revolution," I was completely taken back by it. It brought me back to the days where I was a little girl (little-er for those that know me irl.. shaddup) with pigtails... ok well geez, this isn't getting any better... considering...
*crickets*
I mean when I was like 10 not now. Or not a 10.. dit it tah.
Wow tough crowd. Come on, I'm not that full full of myself here.
I remember how me and my kid brother would play our sega genesis and how we would jump and punch and kick, as if for some reason, that was going to help us do any better. Sure, you could get a Power Pad for the NES or the Activator for the Sega (Eternal Champions.. yeah baby!). But that was about it.
Finally, a game where moving that controller like that is an integral part of the normal gameplay.
Most people either loved or hate the control system. My husband, was a hater. Finally at E3, I was given a little taste of the awesomeness that is the Wii.
Let me tell you just getting into that area to demo the Wii was a challenge enough. The area that the Wii was had lines like you wouldn't believe.
I should have gone on the first day when I had early Press access. See, that would have made sense as I only had one meeting with the wonderful folks over at Warhammer Online(great game btw, I should dig up my review). Horray, my blonde must be showing.
Of course, I slacked and decided to hit it on the last day... having struck out trying to get any pictures with booth babes the day before. That has to be the worst part about being a Bisexual Female at a conference like that. No love for moi. Blah.
So the last day, I attempted to look somewhat girly. I had been all skater rat the days before. I wanted to look decent for my meeting with Sony and the guys over at P.E. (makers of the upcoming MMO Gods and Heroes). So, I wore heels. Let's just say, that was a really bad idea. But, I'm thankful enough that I can say I had the discipline to do it.
Ok I know you boys don't really care about all that crap. But, you can just shush, because this is my blog and I'll pat myself on the back if I want to.
The doors open up on the last day. I was going to get in line with some of my collegues from Stratics. I thought that they were ahead of me when I talked to them on the cell. Nope, I should have stayed in line where I originally was.
Like I said, we went right to the line for Nintendo as soon as they opened. We were in line at least 2-3 hours. I had a meeting at 1030 I think it was, and we still weren't there.
This line was so crazy, that Nintendo personell were walking down the line asking random questions "Anyone have a paperclip?" "Anyone have a safety pin?" "Anyone have a gameboy advance on them?" Etcetera Etcetera. When I was in line I was actually approached by an Italian internet media person to interview me about why I was standing in line this long to see it. You will be happy to know, I made a wonderful ass of myself. I sounded like such a Nintendo Fangirl it was not even funny.
My friend Mike from Stratics helped us get past the crowds thankfully. He had a passport. It was funny, because here was this white guy from Conneticut and there were a bunch of foreigners around us, and none of them had one.
You walked in and there was a middle rotateing platform with different games being demo'd.
After you got out of that area, you could walk and get into a line of various games to try it out yourself. I tried out Tony Hawk's game. I am happy to say, that that wasn't a waste of time.
You have to move the controller back and forth to balance, and do tricks. It was marvelous. I was smitten.
I looked at my phone. Crap, I needed to be at my meeting in like, 10 minutes and since I'm horrible with directions, I wasn't sure exactly where the booth was. (Yes, once again, the blonde was showing) Did I mention that I was in heels? Yeah I thought so.
I had to rush through. Lines were hectic as it was. The guy giving me the demo told me that if I wanted to play some more, I could. I was bummed. I could've easily stayed there awhile. He told me that I could come back and play some more. I ran out of time. My 30 minute meeting with SOE turned into a few hours. ... but that's a whole other ballgame.
I'm stoked about the Wii. You should be too.
Out.

in this episode- proof! just showing myself finally!

So I know that I have been very touch and go these days. I originally wanted to blog once a week... and it has turned into once a month now. I get sucked into a video game or into the real world.

Oh well, life happens.

I'm back from vacation though so I will get back to my normal routine of video game madness. I'm not sure what I will review just yet. I have a ton of stuff that I never did, I guess that I can start with that first.

For some of you that don't know by now, I have become the portal manager for the Gods and Hero's end of Stratics. We are going to be having podcast interviews with members of the dev team (no, that is not my voice in the first podcast... very funny har har har) and some other fun stuff. We held a caption contest for some betas while I was on vacation and it went spendidly. Malyss from Stratics and Chris from PE really did a great time organizeing some things for us.
I will be back to that busyness now. Ah the joys of work.

Speaking of which... I also noticed that I seriously need to update my list of links of published articles from back when E3 was going on. Geezus. Well, I will dig those out of the archives on the forums.. or if you love me that much you can look for em too =) My alias on there is Cherry.

I never did get to snag those pix off my cousin's computer from E3. She doesn't know how to send them all to me, and it has been too crazy here to call and talk her through it. In time... perhaps by next E3. Gah I hate slacking. That's a bit of hypocrisy there but I am the supernerdlady so I can get away with it.

I was told that I should make a cameo over at the SOE Block Party on Wednesday by some friends. Since it is all of 15 mins away from the house, I don't think that would be a bad idea. I guess I can steal myself away from Comic Con for the Free Shuttle. All I gotta say, is it better be good foos!

But anyways, as a treat due to my slack-ass-ness, or more like a punishment if you would like to view it as that, I'm going to post a picture of myself here so that I can hotlink myself for my profiles. So, for your viewing enjoyment/torture, here are some pictures of yours truly. Children, hide your eyes, this may be too frightful a sight. And no no no I swear that I didn't just gank them from some random girl. I'm not that pathetic. So, without further ado... yours truly~ moi

This episode- No holds barred crafting style! (comparisson review)

In this episode, I will be puting 2 crafting games head to head for review and comparrison. So the venue for tonight is Fisher King vs. Harvest Moon- A Wonderful Life. For those of you that were thinking, hmm wasn't that a game a long time ago on Dreamcast? You would be correct in some regards. There was indeed, a version of Harvest Moon made back then. It's probably just as popular as this newer version for Playstation 2 (that came out recently).
Now, we have already established the Supernerdlady's fascination with "odd" niche games, so I don't have to go into that one again do I? But, for all of you senile slackers, you know have had your friendly little reminder.

Getting back to the actual review itself. My husband got Fisher King a few nights ago. It centers around cooking and fishing- at least that is the extent of what I was seeing. At first, it wasn't that bad.

Of course, you have to actually like some of those things to even want to play it more than five minutes. Crafting based games are very mellow, relaxed games. Hense, why I referred to as niche. It appeals to a very specific type of player in general. And, let's not kid ourselves here with delusions... some people just don't have the patience to sit there and do the same repetative things and enjoy them at the same time. Hey, all you MMO raiders know what I'm talking about there /wink.

Getting back to the original subject at hand... Fisher King was where I was right? Ok, so you start of the game with some pretty standard equipment- a bobber and a fishing pole. You can buy items in the shop to help you on your path to be a Fisher King (or queen actually). You can choose between 4 characters in the family- the parents or the 2 children (one of each of course).

The other main objective is cooking. To cook though, you need fish of course. At the stores, you can buy recipes (which you must have before you can even attempt to cook), fishing equipment upgrades, bait, or tools to help you get your own bait. This sounds pretty standard. Of course, it wasn't as simple. Usually on most games, you could expect to see some sort of command to tell you what ingredients are necessary in order to make the recipes. This didn't. So, it left it all up to you to figure out. Then, after that, it didn't show any animation or anything- it just said fail or not fail.

You can sell your fish to make money. So, at least where I was playing, money wasn't hard to come by. It was just a matter of time. Then comes the fishing part. You have to chose the bait and the equipment before you can cast. Watch the bobber and then you will reel in your fish. The game has vibration- so you would think that it would be different depending on the fish, the amount of surges you would feel. This, however, was not the case. So, it kind of sucked. Ok, I won't lie now... it really sucked. Last but not least, movement. It, like everything is just slow.
So basically here's a rundown of what you do- fish, sell, look for bait, fish, fish, fish, cook, fish, sell. And all the running back and forth of course. While it is relaxing- and makes it a very easy game to play on the phone- since it takes little to no concentration really, it only goes so far.
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So, Harvest Moon actually came out a little while ago. My dh and I had planned on getting it sooner, but ran across a minor bump. I'll spare you the details on that, you can figure it out. So off today we went to spend some Gamestop gift certificates. We picked it up, and man am I having a blast with it. It's like night and day with this one.

There are actually a lot of things to do... so much, I have trouble finishing what I need to before the game day ends (which, it never did in Fisher King by the way). In Harvest Moon, you need to maintain a farm. You have to buy plants, cultivate the land, water plants, till the soil, use fertilizer... and that's just the harvest part of it.

You can also have farm animals. You start off with a cow, and a dog- both of which, like your character and the farm itself, you can name. My son got a kick out of naming the farm animals. I let him pick which dog he wanted, and name it. My cow is named Bessie- chuck it up all you want. The dog is named Abe (again, my 3 year old's idea). My farm is a mixure of letters from my children's names. Ironically, it looks just as Asian as the name I chose for my character.


But naming them isn't the only thing of course. You have to groom them, talk to them, nuzzle them, and you can even teach the dog tricks. With the farm animals comes a degree of maintence as well. You can wash them, milk them, sheer them, breed them, sell off their eggs, etc. After all, the heart of the game is making a profit.


You have to buy your seeds from another farmer. If you go to their house, and they aren't home, you have to wait until they come back.

You can chose to either sell during the day (if you have time to go down and make a stand in the middle of the town while maintaining the chores of your farm- which actually, believe it or not, goes quicker then you would think). Or, you can have your friend locally do it- for no charge. Money and orders (you can order various items and tools from a slip) are given at the beguinning of each day when you check the slip.

On certain days, there will be a special vendor in town. It is here that you can get some pretty helpful items. You can buy a fishing pole, and a brush from him for example. Both are things that you will appreciate later.

In time, you can get enough money to buy things that will improve your farm. Such as extentions and things to help you with your harvesting and animal needs.

In the midst of this all, you can also take time to relax. And, of course, you can fish. Here, there doesn't show vibration like I would like either, but it is more entertaining, since you do it more sporadically.

Oh, and then there's another fun part. To quote the instruction book- "it's not all hoe for dough." Part of the game involves trying to court a girl. You can get her gifts by various ways. There are 4 girls in the PS2 Special Edition version to choose from. Each girl has different ideas of how to tickle her fancy. So, choose wisely. Some girls can be "more expensive" than others to keep happy. Oh, don't we all love that reality huh? Women.... Ahem!

Last, but not least, excavating. There is a place where you can work and dig up things. The excavatator will allow you to keep some of your items. Items can then be sold to other NPCs.

Now granted, there are a few other things I did leave out. But, you get the general idea of it.

You play in days. Like I said earlier, time goes by faster than you would think. You will get tired. You will need food. There is so much to do, and you run out of time faster than you would assume. I'm only on my 9th day so far, and I've been playing all day.

Furthermore, after giving you the basic runthrough of the basics.. which one do you think I'll be playing more? Yeah, um, that's right. Fisher King is now another coaster right now. If you are even remotely interested in getting one of these niche games- between these 2, it's no contest. Harvest Moon (even now) still doesn't fail to amaze.
Happy farming =)


*I also do have to apologize for these horrendous images- games look much better when you actually play them. Score 1 for the net today, I lose =p

This episode- I win Kingdom Hearts 2

Ah, it didn't take long. I know, I know... I rock. Here goes on the playback though. First off, You have to love the amazing graphic quality. The game looked amazing. My hat goes off to Square on that one. Feel free to take your time on any additional titles you want... if this is anything to show for it.

The worlds that you played in followed along not only on the game storyline, but the movie's storylines spot on. Interface command menu changed with every world, as did the look of the characters. My favorite area to play was Halloween Town. I have to say, that fighting Oogy Boogie was the highlight of the game for me personally. I guess I'm just a spooky kind of gal.

The game includes episodes from various Disney movies. If you have any kiddos at home, just watching will keep them easily occupied. My boys sat there star eyed. Hell, they even gladly turned off their own shows on television and told me to play the game. It was splendid.

Playtime was about 40 hours or so. I play in long sittings, so I finished it in about 3 or 4 days. (Wow, you really are a supernerdlady) Yes, I know. Tis true tis true. /flexes gaming muscle, winks, and smiles

I really can't emphasize enough how much this game really was worth every moment. I would have to say the only downfall was the end battle. It was just a bit frustrating at 4 in the morning. It made my thumbs hurt.

I won't give away too much about the actual plot of the game. If you want a spoiler, you should look elsewhere. The plot is pretty complex. But, these guys right here are a major role in it. You will meet them often in your travels. Beware of the scary men in black.

Edit: Grrrr... well apparently blogger is having some issues uploading more pictures on here right now. It has to be a sign! They want you to figure it out yourself. See, this is why spoilers are bad m'kay?)
Next episode *may* include Beat Mania- the new DDR music style game that came out the day after Kingdom Hearts 2. Obviously, I have been preoccupied with this one, so I just decided not to pick it yet.
Beat Mania comes with a turntable controller. So yes, it's approaching the time to get your trance hats on. Gather your patience for repetitive beats. Get your bling on and "scribble."
Also due out this month: the Family pack for Sims 2 (woot, new items to play with), and Bad Day L.A. by the infamous American Mcgee.
I'll be completely honest, I'm a sucker for anything by American after playing Alice. The game was just so crispy. Again, I guess I'm just a spooky kind of gal.
Until then, this is your supernerdlady signing off.

Alas, I haven't forgotten...+ game reviews soon to come

I have been disappearing a bit here and there.. but never fear! Na is still here. I haven't forgotten my wonderful readers. I mean, you put up with my jabbering... you have to be great folks. In the time that has passed since our last episode I have written a few articles for Stratics. Articles ranged from password protection to reviews. Of course, how could I possibly keep my mouth shut when asked for my opinion on a game? Would you guys and gals have it any other way? Shh don't answer that.


In addition to some of the usual extended family drama, I have also started a couple of projects. Yes, some personal endeavors that have kept me sidetracked a bit. I am working on my artist portfolio as well as a gaming site. My dh and I purchased the domains, so now it just comes to the grunt work. I know I know... you just wish that you could be having this much fun.

Besides my side projects, my daughter should be here within a month now. It is scary in a way. My daughter will be the most beautiful creature (boys stay away)... the best of both worlds or at least we can hope. Perhaps that sounds a bit pretentious. But, there is nothing wrong with me being proud of my children in my eyes. So neener!

The pictures in this episode's post are from ROSE Online- my latest obsession. My ROSE review written for Stratics can be viewed off the link on the right. I think it was a given that I really liked it because of my current myspace layout- but nonetheless... this game is too far not marketed enough for how good it is. I'm happy to give this game as much props as I possibly can. More is soon to come. Enjoy =)


Also, I was told that a little known MMO called DOFUS created by Ankama Studios won some awards recently. It is a tactical MMO that looks beautiful as well graphics wise. The game also as an added bonus, requires no subscription fee to play. This is definately worth a peek at the very least. If I wasn't so busy with ROSE, I would devote some time to trying out this one as well. The best part about both of these MMOs- besides the beautiful anime style graphics has to be the fact that they are both currently offering free trials. ROSE is offering a free 7 day/ 35 hr trial for their game which can be gotten here. DOFUS is free all the time to my knowledge. So take a look for yourself... you have absolutely nothing to lose.


I have played a few games as well in the meantime. Among them were Tales of Legendia, Grandia 3, and Shadow Hearts 3. I will get to reviews shortly. I'm actually kicking myself that they haven't been done yet. This is one area where I really wish that Stratics covered (consoles) so that I could get those opinions out there. Alas, that is what this blog is for I suppose- at least for the time being.

I bought the new Sims expansion- Open for Buisness. The game was sucking my life away. It is an excellent expansion that I will highly recommend. Given how much I love the Sims series, you can be assured that a review will be posted.

I was a bit disappointed to learn that the new Katamari game was only going to be available for the PSP. To be completly honest, as far as handhelds are conserned, I am in favor of the Nintendo DS. Not because I currently own one (My dh was given one from a conference but it went to Ebay sadly... ah Christmas money for the kids =/), but because of the titles available. Argueably, it is the "girly" handheld of choice. I would tend to agree to an extend as well.

I bought my husband Oblivion this week. The graphics are amazing. A review for this one will also be in the works at a later time.


I am going to be picking up a copy of the new Harvest Moon in a few days. That little known title should be something fun. It has strong emphasis on crafting. I guess that I am a masachist. Games like this one just seem to have an odd draw to me. Perhaps it is because there are so few of them out there like it.

I will also direct you to the list of work that I have done- shown on the sidebar. I have written more articles than this for Stratics in the past- but I have decided to keep a more up to date listing here for your reference. Please feel free to check back every now and again to see if there are any new links added. Rest assured, despite my lack of posting on here as much as I would like, it doesn't mean that I have dropped off the gaming planet and /gasp become "normal" at all. Back dated articles will also become available as I dig up the links.

More games are coming out in the next weeks. But I will try and post about them when I can. Again, I thank you all once so very much for your patience.

redirecting->

Since my commenatary here is generally only reviews, I just figured that I would redirect you guys and gals to my other blog for a moment.
It's still gaming related of course, but it touches on contraversial issues.
go read my blog Against the Stereotype for more info.

Touching base with EQ2

Well, after some thought, and the lack of other titles to chose from at the moment, I decided to take a peek back into EQ2. That probably sounds horrible being as that I write for the EQ2 side of Stratics. >< Flog me if you will.

They have done some good things for newer players. I logged in to see the new changes, and was pleasantly surprised. Actually, I was a bit envious that it wasn't like that when I played hardcore.

The screenie on the right is a good example of things that they have done- visually at least. They added the Japanese SOGA models to the game. It's a huge difference compared to the American version... Yes that is actually the same character in both screens-no modifications at all. It's crazy the difference when you look at it isn't it? Almost 2 completely different games looks wise.

I have been walking around and just questing a bit. I like writeing the walkthrus for games. It puts an anal retentive like me at ease a bit.
Anyways.. been doing that quite a bit these days..
Oddly enough, I may just keep the account active after all just to work with it.
Oh, there were, of course, new seasonal things out. I had sat on the account being active for awhile.. just screwing around. Then, I rememebered. If I didn't get this stuff now, I could most likely either a)never get it, or b)have to pay outrageous prices for it later. The stuff was cheap, but I bought tons of it. My EQ2 house looks like it has been hosed down with Christmas goodness.
Unfortunately there was one thing that I didn't have the time for... well, more like didn't have the energy for. At one point, I asked when the stuff was supposed to go away- this was a few days ago, but the Christmas garb had been out over a month now. Then, someone told me that it would be going down when the patch came in in a few hours. I scurried my cute little bard ass over there to go see what I had to do. Of course, there were no walk-thrus posted =/
It was an easy quest to do. But long, with many steps and subquests in it. It took me a little bit of time to complete it.
I asked Anj to load it up on the other computer and run it with me. But, after DoF came out, we were so pissed, that he deleted it completely off of my old system. So, I couldn't run it twice. The reward was a house item though. It reduced status, wasn't tradeable, and there were two possible available- a Quenos (goodie) based one, and a Freeport (ebil) based one. I just took the Freeport one. It looked cool in my room too. It was a rather large snowglobe.
Anyways, I have been working like a busy little bee doing writeups and things. It's time to get back to break time though. Kudos!