When I was a student I had oceans of time to game. I would spend at least 5 hours a day in front of the computer engrossed in my current favourite timesink.
Now I have sadly had to grow up a bit, get a real job, sort paperwork and bills, shop for groceries and cook dinner and it all takes time. Oh yes, it doesn't help that being pregnant has changed me from a 2 a clock "just one more turn" night owl, into a woman with an aching back who falls asleep at 8 PM in the evening like clockwork.
What this means is that I have despairingly little time to play games. So what do you do as a hardcore gamer when you do not have enough hours in the day to actually emerge yourself truly in the newest RPG game that you have been waiting impatiently for, forever.
Well you turn to casual gaming at least for a little while just so you can get at least a taste of the magical world you love so much.
For me right now the casual game of choice is World of Warcraft. I know this might give hardcore raiders a sour taste in the mouth, but I promise I am not there to join your LFG raids in my half green half blue gear.
I just do Pet Battles. Pet Battles are quick, fun and gives me a sense of achievement that can be obtained with approximately 30 minutes of daily basis, moreover the pet battles are turn based so if the potatoes starts boiling I wont wipe my group out just because I have to leave the keyboard. Even better noone will be complaining at me when I return 40 minutes later because my pregnancy brain set in and completely wiped any memory of playing WoW and instead dragged my attention to one of my newly installed tablet quiz games.
Another awesome thing about Pet Battles is that I get my urge to do Youtube videos satisfied. I am recording videos showcasing the Pet abilities of each of my collected companions and recently I have started creating videos from the PTR giving people an idea of the upcoming Elite Battle Pets. Like this fight against Gorespine.
When I start having more energy and hopefully when I get a baby who sleeps through the night and takes frequent naps during the day, I will get back to hardcore, many hours in a row gaming, but for now Pet Battles really does fit my tight gaming schedule very well. What is your favourite casual game?
Tuesday 29 January 2013
Saturday 19 January 2013
Discount Baby Bed
Many moms-to-be complain that their partner is not really involved in the preparation for the baby's arrival. I am in luck here and my boyfriend is very active when it comes to getting our apartment ready for the little new inhabitant.
He has even secured the first piece of baby equipment. Check out the baby bed that my boyfriend has picked out and proudly presented to me.
The more perceptive of my readers might notice that this is in fact a cardboard box and might be wondering where the bed that came in it went or if you are missing something. Nope I did not upload the wrong photo. This is what my boyfriend in all seriousness suggests as a bed for our precious little newborn.
Not only that, he stared at me in despair as I continously screamed "my baby is not going to sleep in a cardboard box" and then he demanded that I provided good arguments against this attrocity of an idea.
"It is not safe" I said. "How is it not safe?" he countered. "The baby will move and kick and gradually destabilize the sides of the box" I answered. "Are we going to have a super strong, mutant, alien baby?" he asked in disbelief.
Well... he has only felt the kicks through my stomach, so I forgive him for doubting the power of our child, but he will see!!
"It is not built of baby safe materials" I also tried to ague. "There will be glue and chemical residue used to keep the box together"
"It is not hygenic, it will be dusty and it is also bad to have the baby sleep so close to the floor" I tried. "Well we can just place it on the coffee table" he said.
At this point I gave up trying to reason and just stared chanting "my baby is not sleeping in a cardboard box" over and over again while rocking back and forth like a mad woman.
Next time I bet he will suggest that we case mod an old PC tower into a baby tub.
What crazy ideas does your partner come up with when it comes to your little one(s)?
He has even secured the first piece of baby equipment. Check out the baby bed that my boyfriend has picked out and proudly presented to me.
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The more perceptive of my readers might notice that this is in fact a cardboard box and might be wondering where the bed that came in it went or if you are missing something. Nope I did not upload the wrong photo. This is what my boyfriend in all seriousness suggests as a bed for our precious little newborn.
Not only that, he stared at me in despair as I continously screamed "my baby is not going to sleep in a cardboard box" and then he demanded that I provided good arguments against this attrocity of an idea.
"It is not safe" I said. "How is it not safe?" he countered. "The baby will move and kick and gradually destabilize the sides of the box" I answered. "Are we going to have a super strong, mutant, alien baby?" he asked in disbelief.
Well... he has only felt the kicks through my stomach, so I forgive him for doubting the power of our child, but he will see!!
"It is not built of baby safe materials" I also tried to ague. "There will be glue and chemical residue used to keep the box together"
"It is not hygenic, it will be dusty and it is also bad to have the baby sleep so close to the floor" I tried. "Well we can just place it on the coffee table" he said.
At this point I gave up trying to reason and just stared chanting "my baby is not sleeping in a cardboard box" over and over again while rocking back and forth like a mad woman.
Next time I bet he will suggest that we case mod an old PC tower into a baby tub.
What crazy ideas does your partner come up with when it comes to your little one(s)?
Thursday 17 January 2013
How to get a beta invite for SimCity 2013
I have been following the new SimCity with excitement as I have always been a fan of the older SimCity games.
Not that I was ever very good at them. In fact it seems that most of my SimCity games ended up with my town imploding in a cesspoll of crime, lack of electricity and abundance of pollution.
Still there is something incredibly cool about being the master of an entire little society and I have been looking forward to getting a new chance at this with SimCity 2013.
There was much rejoicing then as I checked the official SimCity website today and saw a shiny new button added with the wording "Beta".
So how do you then get to be chosen to have beta access?
Well for now it seems that all you have to do is sign up and keep your fingers crossed while waiting for the mail that will hopefully come.
To register you will need to login with an origin account so if you do not have one, you will need to create one first and if you are one of those people who refuse to have anything to do with EA and Origin, well then I guess you are out of luck. (Especially since SimCity 2013 is bound to require an Origin account to play as well).
But if you are like me and you only have the "I hate EA, they are the devil in disguise and I will never ever pay a cent for any of their games as I would be helping them build their evil empire" opinion until they launch a truly awesome game, then I would advice you to get on the site and sign up for beta. Hopefully access to testing out the game will allow me to carry through until the release in March!
Good luck to everyone out there hoping to geth into the SimCity beta program. :)
Not that I was ever very good at them. In fact it seems that most of my SimCity games ended up with my town imploding in a cesspoll of crime, lack of electricity and abundance of pollution.
Still there is something incredibly cool about being the master of an entire little society and I have been looking forward to getting a new chance at this with SimCity 2013.
There was much rejoicing then as I checked the official SimCity website today and saw a shiny new button added with the wording "Beta".
So how do you then get to be chosen to have beta access?
Well for now it seems that all you have to do is sign up and keep your fingers crossed while waiting for the mail that will hopefully come.
To register you will need to login with an origin account so if you do not have one, you will need to create one first and if you are one of those people who refuse to have anything to do with EA and Origin, well then I guess you are out of luck. (Especially since SimCity 2013 is bound to require an Origin account to play as well).
But if you are like me and you only have the "I hate EA, they are the devil in disguise and I will never ever pay a cent for any of their games as I would be helping them build their evil empire" opinion until they launch a truly awesome game, then I would advice you to get on the site and sign up for beta. Hopefully access to testing out the game will allow me to carry through until the release in March!
Good luck to everyone out there hoping to geth into the SimCity beta program. :)
Saturday 12 January 2013
Mistborn video game and movie adaptation
Not only is today awesome because it is Saturday and weekend. No! I managed to stumble onto something that got me very, very excited.
You guys hopefully know Brandon Sanderson? If not, then it is time to start reading some proper fantasy novels! Not only is he the guy who was asked to finish Robert Jordans Wheel of Time series, but he has also written some amazing books on his own.
The Mistborn Trilogy is one of the most innovative and intersting fantasy books I have read. The universe is quite unique and the characters interesting and believable. I highly recommend grabbing these if you have room in your busy schedule for some proper fantasy litterature.
Anyways, what made me so excited on this January Saturday? I was thrawling the Internet and came across an article mentioning Mistborn: Birthright. Yup, that is right, they are making a game that is supposed to follow the Mistborn novels.
There is very little information out on the game yet, but I am hoping it will be amazing!
That is not all though, while browsing around for more information about the Mistborn game I came across this blogpost by Mr Sanderson himself, talking about a potential Mistborn movie.
Now I don't think there is any novel or universe out there I would rather see make it to the big screen so I was a bit disappointed to read that they are still looking for a studio willing to back the project. However, they have made a mood video (made by editing clips from other movies together in order to show the feel of the movie they would like to make) which you can watch below and I figure that if we can make some noise about this project and share it enough, it might grab the attention of some of the studios out there.
My only fear is that it will end up as badly done as Eragon, however if that is the case, there is still the game right?
You guys hopefully know Brandon Sanderson? If not, then it is time to start reading some proper fantasy novels! Not only is he the guy who was asked to finish Robert Jordans Wheel of Time series, but he has also written some amazing books on his own.
The Mistborn Trilogy is one of the most innovative and intersting fantasy books I have read. The universe is quite unique and the characters interesting and believable. I highly recommend grabbing these if you have room in your busy schedule for some proper fantasy litterature.
Anyways, what made me so excited on this January Saturday? I was thrawling the Internet and came across an article mentioning Mistborn: Birthright. Yup, that is right, they are making a game that is supposed to follow the Mistborn novels.
There is very little information out on the game yet, but I am hoping it will be amazing!
That is not all though, while browsing around for more information about the Mistborn game I came across this blogpost by Mr Sanderson himself, talking about a potential Mistborn movie.
Now I don't think there is any novel or universe out there I would rather see make it to the big screen so I was a bit disappointed to read that they are still looking for a studio willing to back the project. However, they have made a mood video (made by editing clips from other movies together in order to show the feel of the movie they would like to make) which you can watch below and I figure that if we can make some noise about this project and share it enough, it might grab the attention of some of the studios out there.
My only fear is that it will end up as badly done as Eragon, however if that is the case, there is still the game right?
Sunday 6 January 2013
The Repopulation - A light at the end of the tunnel for MMORPG crafting fanatics?
I woke up this morning wanting to write a rant about the sad state of crafting and player driven economy in MMORPGs today.
While doing research for my blog post I stumbled upon a gem of a game that I have somehow managed to overlook.
The Repopulation is a scifi MMORPG that market itself on being build on the same principles as UO, Vanguard and more importantly Star Wars Galaxies.
People who know me, know that I loved SWG. It was the first MMORPG I really got into and it was the first one I actually payed for. I was a Weaponsmith, the best on my server (at least if you ask me ;)) and I was for some time the Weaponsmith Correspondant as well. The reason I was dedicating so much time to SWG was because it allowed you to stand out. If you dedicated yourself to a profession, if you spent time building up your business, you could become famous. Years after I quit the game due to Sonys rewamp of the basic game mechanics I still found people mentioning me and my weapons on the official forum. And I loved it!
Anyways, The Repopulation promises to give you the same opportunity to first of all just be a crafter as your main role and also that you can specialise yourself in a certain niche, making you the go to crafter for those particular items. The game is currently in the Alpha stage, but it still looks as polished as many big titles out there and much, much more interesting. The Repopulation will be free to play, but with the option to buy the game and with an item store.
You can currently support the development team financially in order to get a headstart when the game launches. I advice everyone to check out the crafting video and other gameplay videos from the game and join me in the OMG, OMG, OMG SWG has been resurrected dance.
While doing research for my blog post I stumbled upon a gem of a game that I have somehow managed to overlook.
The Repopulation is a scifi MMORPG that market itself on being build on the same principles as UO, Vanguard and more importantly Star Wars Galaxies.
People who know me, know that I loved SWG. It was the first MMORPG I really got into and it was the first one I actually payed for. I was a Weaponsmith, the best on my server (at least if you ask me ;)) and I was for some time the Weaponsmith Correspondant as well. The reason I was dedicating so much time to SWG was because it allowed you to stand out. If you dedicated yourself to a profession, if you spent time building up your business, you could become famous. Years after I quit the game due to Sonys rewamp of the basic game mechanics I still found people mentioning me and my weapons on the official forum. And I loved it!
Anyways, The Repopulation promises to give you the same opportunity to first of all just be a crafter as your main role and also that you can specialise yourself in a certain niche, making you the go to crafter for those particular items. The game is currently in the Alpha stage, but it still looks as polished as many big titles out there and much, much more interesting. The Repopulation will be free to play, but with the option to buy the game and with an item store.
You can currently support the development team financially in order to get a headstart when the game launches. I advice everyone to check out the crafting video and other gameplay videos from the game and join me in the OMG, OMG, OMG SWG has been resurrected dance.
Saturday 5 January 2013
Tuesday 1 January 2013
A gamers Christmas
Happy Christmas and 2013 for everyone out there.
I celebrated my Christmas in Denmark with my family, showing of the growing stomach and eating a lot of unhealthy food. (I try to eat as healthily as possible for the sake of my developing baby and as such it was a triple treat to go wild at the Christmas dinner.)
As is tradition in my family the evening of the 25th was spent playing boardgames and geeking out. This year I purchased the much acclaimed Pandemic for my cousin and as such it was the choice of the night.
The game is a coorperative challenge where you fight together as a team against an out of control epidemic of vira, bacteria and other nasty stuff that is spreading rapidly across the globe.
Each player gets a specific role such as the Medic, the Scientist, the Researcher etc. and each role has specific strenghts. As such the Medic is much better at curing infected cities, whereas the Scientist is better at developing cures to rid the world of the disease forever.
During the course of the game you need to make strategic decissions together with the rest of the group of players and depending on your choices you may or may not succeed in saving the world.
The game is relatively fast paced and quite easy to get into. In 4-5 hours we managed to learn the rules and get about 6 games in which is not bad for a relatively complex boardgame.
Furthermore it is a game that I expect even younger children of age 12+ will be able to enjoy both because it is relatively easy to understand the rules and also because of the coorperative nature of the game. The latter ensures that everyone are a winner (or a looser ;))
All in all Pandemic is a really enjoyable game and I would recommend it as part of the arsenal for any boardgame geek.
I celebrated my Christmas in Denmark with my family, showing of the growing stomach and eating a lot of unhealthy food. (I try to eat as healthily as possible for the sake of my developing baby and as such it was a triple treat to go wild at the Christmas dinner.)
As is tradition in my family the evening of the 25th was spent playing boardgames and geeking out. This year I purchased the much acclaimed Pandemic for my cousin and as such it was the choice of the night.The game is a coorperative challenge where you fight together as a team against an out of control epidemic of vira, bacteria and other nasty stuff that is spreading rapidly across the globe.
Each player gets a specific role such as the Medic, the Scientist, the Researcher etc. and each role has specific strenghts. As such the Medic is much better at curing infected cities, whereas the Scientist is better at developing cures to rid the world of the disease forever.
During the course of the game you need to make strategic decissions together with the rest of the group of players and depending on your choices you may or may not succeed in saving the world.
The game is relatively fast paced and quite easy to get into. In 4-5 hours we managed to learn the rules and get about 6 games in which is not bad for a relatively complex boardgame.
Furthermore it is a game that I expect even younger children of age 12+ will be able to enjoy both because it is relatively easy to understand the rules and also because of the coorperative nature of the game. The latter ensures that everyone are a winner (or a looser ;))
All in all Pandemic is a really enjoyable game and I would recommend it as part of the arsenal for any boardgame geek.
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