Post-Christmas gaming

So nerds of all types I bring you belated seasons greetings and a happy new year. So I got a lot of nerdy gifts and besides bragging, if anyone that's watching is going on sale shopping here are some ideas if you don't have it and see anything you like.

Video Games


The Binding of Isaac- I got this a few days before Christmas but I say it counts. The plot is that Isaac's mom has heard God, and she must kill her son in God's will (this is before the game even starts, I'm not spoiling anything,) and Isaac finds a small hatch under the rug in his room that goes into the basement. Seeing no other way out, he jumps into it. And thus the story begins. It plays kind of like the original Legend of Zelda. The each level is randomly generated so there is no real predictable way to go through. Its a lot of fun if you like your share of bloody/creepy/I'm-going-to-hell-for-finding some-of-the-items-he-found-funny style.
The game is only on computer systems and steam is where you would get said game
The makers infact, made a demo on newgrounds, so I recommend you check it out first
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/581168
And oh God its addicting, I lost sleep on this game, and that's rare for me. I value sleep as a college student.

Kirby's Epic Yarn-  I've wanted this for a while but haven't been able to get it, financially speaking, until now. There isn't too much to say, its a simple platformer that's cute and fun. Its just incredibly cute. Nothing bad, but it's somewhat repetitive but easy for someone to just pick up and play. That's all I can really say about it.

Rayman Origins- A new game when it can still be called new. That's rare for me. And its a lot of fun, its spaztic and in someways a twist on the platformer, while still staying true to the platformer. Its gorgeous, it is brilliantly drawn and the music is awesome. Only two things bother me.
1.

picture from newgameblog.com

The busty fairies, on one hand they're cute and I want a sticker of a couple of them on my laptop. On the other, super sexualized so I shouldn't like them and they have very little point in the story past 'I give you the power of...' HEART!...Wait, this isn't Captain Planet, never mind. Anyways, they're not much besides, eye candy, damsel in distress, and plot device. But dammit, they're cute.

2. You die a lot. Its not too bad, but when trying to get certain goals, it starts getting old to die and re-spawn over and over again. When doing a quick play through its not too bad though.

Non-Video Games

Lord of the Rings book collection with The Hobbit- I know, I have failed as a nerd by not reading the series earlier, its not for lack of trying, its because the copies at my house were literally falling apart. So now I'm reading them, and so far I'm liking The Hobbit, but more reading is needed for real opinion to be given.

Wonder Woman lunch box and DVD- this was not an official set but its still awesome. The lunch box is just  awesome, I plan to use it in the upcoming semester for lunch. The Wonder Woman DVD that I got with it was the 2009 straight to DVD, not the old tv series. And I was pleasantly surprised with it. It was well written, it had great notes of feminism, and the voice of Wonder Woman was what I would think of her voice. Unlike DC universe, but that's for another blog post.

Only one downside I could see with it, Tara Strong's voice as Alexa was too close not only as voice similarity, but personality, as Twilight Sparkle in the recent My Little Pony series. Even for the small part it was distracting.

The Nerdist Way by Chris Hardwick- so this book mainly talks about how you can make your nerdy brain work for you. I haven't read very far in it, but it is well written and its by nerds for nerds. 

So I think that's it in the way of nerdy Christmas presents. So happy new year and similar cliches. 

Halfy on deviantART

Halfy on deviantART:
Public health campaign and Super Women. I had a nerdgasm. Its simple, gets its point across and doesn't sexualize the women, it shows the importance of checking for cancer.
'via Blog this'

Look out Behind you and Beware of the Ska Mando Army!

Look out Behind you and Beware of the Ska Mando Army!:
I'm in a role playing guild with one of them, and this is pretty funny and reviews a nerd's guilty pleasure, fan fiction. Cool stuffs.
'via Blog this'

The Hero Business - Coffee Break #20: Empower Trip

The Hero Business - Coffee Break #20: Empower Trip:

I lolled.

'via Blog this'

Tetris Company Upset About "Girls Can't Do Math" T-Shirts | Styleite

Tetris Company Upset About "Girls Can't Do Math" T-Shirts | Styleite:

Just in case I needed another reason to love Tetris

Homemade Chewbacca Costume | Geeky Tech News - Cool Gadgets and Designs

Homemade Chewbacca Costume | Geeky Tech News - Cool Gadgets and Designs:

This is too amazing for words.

Not Quite Nostalgia

So I'm playing a few games and they aren't old enough to be considered retro, but some are getting kind of close, while others aren't and thought I'd give my two cents of what I think of these not quite nostalgic games.

Legend of Zelda Wind Waker

I never had the game when I had a Game Cube, partially because I got a Game Cube within the last year of its existence, also because my knowledge of video games was that of Sonic and Harvest Moon (shut up, I had to start somewhere and my first GameBoy Advance game was Yoshi's island.)So it was off my radar when it came into the spot light. Anyways, I borrowed it from my boyfriend and his good amount of video games. 

No, I have not finished it, but I have every intention to. Its a lot of fun. The style is cartoony and plays to the Game Cube's strengths. The controls are easy and straight forward for even someone like me who has very little skill in video games. I want to keep playing and just wish I had batteries for both my Wii and my Game Cube controller so I don't have to switch batteries while the game loads. And there are only AAAs at my house. 

No More Heroes 

So this is another borrow, and I've gotten near the end. The style takes getting used to in someways, but is quite enjoyable. The game play is easy enough, its basically a hack and slash when fighting. I have some mixed emotions over all about this game though. The female characters drive me insane, they are way over sexualized  pretty much all characters are one or two dimensional so to complain about the girls I would have to complain about everyone in the game.  But the one dimensional suits well for the game, its genius lies in its simplicity. 

My only other complaint is the time in between the levels, when you have to earn X dollars to pay to the organization. It takes forever, at least for me it does. Some people say that it wasn't that long for them but for me it can sometimes take a lot of play time.

That's pretty much all I have for NQN, I might make a series of this but I don't know, I'd appreciate your feedback. So till then. 

There's a Lot of B*tching About Catwoman in 'Arkham City' - ComicsAlliance | Comic book culture, news, humor, commentary, and reviews

There's a Lot of B*tching About Catwoman in 'Arkham City' - ComicsAlliance | Comic book culture, news, humor, commentary, and reviews:

Ok I'm not a huge Catwoman fan, but to refer to her as a b*tch in every other line about her? If you're trying to make her sound like a real threat to the bad guys, be more creative than swear words. It not only is unbalanced in that the most the bad guys call Batman at worst a freak. It just seems like lazy writing in that sense. The rest of the game has been called stellar. If I had money and had played Arkham Asylum I would probably buy it.

Gaming Etiquette 101

So I  have been playing Team Fortress 2 a lot lately. I went from 1 type of of rocket launcher to four. And one thing kept popping up: poor gaming etiquette.
Well what do I mean by that? I mean spawn camping, text or voice harassing, and the list goes on. But for now, I'm going to talk about spawn camping.
Spawn camping is essentially, for those who don't know, is staying right near a spawn point and killing someone as soon as they spawn. Unless you're in a free for all server where there is no safe spot, you come off as a no skill jerk.
Sometimes its hard to tell if someone is spawn camping and if they're not. The lines sometimes blur especially in beginnings of maps. For the record, I'm using Team Fortress 2 as an example because I can get pictures easily of it. This isn't an end all guide of gaming etiquette, I'm just tired of trying to play a game but have no one even be able to get through the door.
Scenario #1
So I'm starting off at a map.

The game has already started. This is the area right out of the spawn camp. The other team can get in here, but unless we lost, you as another team have no right to be here. This is spawn camping.
Scenario #2

Here I am before a different map. This is an attack defend map. Slightly out of sight is the first map we have to capture. People defending this point are not spawn camping. They are defending. Payload maps also follow the same rule.
Scenario #3

My team's cart on a payload server is way ahead of the spawn point, if you can see the almost circular light blue shape in the background, that's our cart. These three guys are spawn camping, its way far away from their spawn and they're hitting us with rockets and ubercharges we're not ready for.

 There's no skill, there's no need, and you're not on your way to another point. It just makes you be this kid. No one wants to be this kid, because no one likes this kid.

Don't be the annoying childhood friend. Be a Good Guy Greg.

Women Fighters In Reasonable Armor

Women Fighters In Reasonable Armor:

This is what I always wanted my female fighters to look like.

An Open Letter to the Gentleman Who Doesn’t Care About Women Gamers: The Argument By Finance | The Mary Sue

An Open Letter to the Gentleman Who Doesn’t Care About Women Gamers: The Argument By Finance | The Mary Sue:

I love this woman, I can't say much past I couldn't have put it better myself.

Crimecraft review

So as most of you know, I love the free to play games. Or at least giving them a try. So I have played a few new games. Crimecraft: Bleed out, is a new game on Steam. And it being free, I thought 'what the hell' I'll give it a shot. So I installed it and about an hour later its ready to go.

 The story goes that the world has run out of oil in the not so distant future and the whole world has collapsed because of it. Its a kill or be killed world. An overall, relatively cliche but good old apocalypse scenario. The game style is very much like of the FPS that heal relatively quickly over time if you're not getting shot at.
My problem was first in character customization.

This is what I saw at first glance and was not impressed. Miniskirts and high heels wouldn't work on any type of battlefield and as much as the world is a use what you've got scenario, there would be a point where you'd pick sneakers over high heels. You can chose other than the miniskirt, but you're stuck with a form of heels. I was not impressed. So as soon as you start, you're dumped in a really badly made control point field and like any other video game, there are some jerks on the server. But the time will eventually be up and you'll be sent to a safe zone.

As you go through , you'll do simple tasks at first. Go to this person, buy this item, talk to this guy who will put you in an instance etc.

The controls are awkward at best. The graphics are trying to seem almost like No More Heroes style wise but at times come across as sloppy. The attempt at trying to combine a shooter with an MMO the way they did seems weird and maybe if I played longer and I might like it more, but it just doesn't appeal to me.

Looking at some free games

So I decided to look at Sims Social, which is on Facebook. Some of the hardcore Simmers were flaming this title at first sight. Which as someone who used to be a semi-hardcore Simmer at one point, I wanted to try it out and see if the love/hate press is what its worth. Open it up, and its enter my name, gender, and make my Sim as I want. For being on Facebook, its pretty decent in the way of making an avatar. It gives you little quests of collecting and doing stuff, and you have energy, like in most Facebook games.

Its not great, its not bad. Its a decent Facebook game. I can understand why some people were not happy about the idea of a Sims game in this style, but if your a purist, you'd never buy the spin offs anyways and if you like these kind of games/ buy anything Sims related, you'd enjoy it.
In other news,

This is how I am right now, mainly using Steam, so I'll give a brief thought of some of the games I've played that are free. I've been playing Team Fortress 2 for almost two years, and despite it being swarmed by a lot of people loving it being free, it still is a lot of fun.

I really like playing medic and I'm giving the Quick fix a shot.

The only problem I have in the way of the paying for some things, is the fact of the crates. Crates are locked boxes that you need a key to unlock. Which you need to buy, sometimes you'll get a cool hat or the item you wanted, but a good amount of the time its an item you don't care that much for. 

Forsaken Worlds
It's another free one on Steam, and its an MMORPG. Its pretty good, if you like the genre, as usual. The graphics are pretty good, and aside from my issues with fantasy armor.

This is a good summary of fantasy armor in general. Penny arcade tends to explain most video game things well.

Although their not too bad in the way of fantasy armor, so its a step in the right direction. The controls are good but its repetitive after a while. The things that are pay are things like mounts, pets and outfits, so they're not needed, and won't necessarily make you a better player, but their not bad and its not pushy.

Age of Empires Online
 Its a decent RTS, my only problem with it is the way it pushes you to buy the packs. Some of the items in game were rewards, that you could only use if you buy the pack. I don't have the money to see if it makes the game amazing, but I doubt it and RTS games aren't my cup of tea anyways. 

Not bad graphics though, and I can play it on my laptop with out much lag.

Global Agenda
Its on Steam, but it was a little tricky to get it to run, and it would only tell me that I didn't have a certain thing installed if I downloaded it directly from Hi-Rez Studios. So after I learned how to set it up right, I start playing. After you sign on, you do like most, make a character.

The character making made me happy in that you only chose the class and the facial features. The girls are still girls, but its not a hyper sexualized look. And that's all I ask. And the graphics are beautiful. From the the graphics are beautiful and whole areas are very well thought out for a dystopian future look.The one downside   is that controls respond weirdly. At times they are super sensitive and at times, they barely respond. That and it takes up a good amount of space because of the awesome graphics.

Champions Online
Another Steam game, and it does the most are for free, but you need to upgrade to get some powers.
Its a system that makes sense and its not one that will badger you through the whole game about you not buying something, which I like.

It still has moments of upgrade pushing, but it doesn't distract from the people who don't want the extras. Its a decent game, but its not my favorite, the graphics are okay and they have cut scenes with voices which can be a little over the top in my opinion.

Ragnarok online
I've been playing this MMO on and off for about 3 years now.There are tones of different servers, some free, some not, some over crowded, some dead empty. It varies from one to another. The biggest perk about this game its easy to learn for a first time player. Its a good introductory in the way of MMOs. The servers that I've been on for RO, aren't really plot focused, so I wouldn't call it an MMORPG. There are no main quests, only ones for items and for job changing, but not even so much for the latter because most now a days has an NPC that will do it for you as long as you fill the prerequisites.

Its ok as a starting out game. Its not amazing, its not terrible, its just an ok MMO.

World of Warcraft
What's this WoW is free? Well sort of. WoW is free for up to level 20. And its not naggy about not upgrading, maybe once you get up to lvl 20.

Other than the fantasy armor that bugs me at all times, its not bad, but its pretty overcrowded if you're a night elf. One of the reasons I'm a blood elf. Don't comment about me being a horde if you don't like me being one. I don't care what you play It doesn't nag about you not having the full version as you're a lvl 5. I like that

Dragon Nest
Its well done, I have one and only one issue in this game. Lack of gender choice. If you want to be a cleric or swordsman, you have to be male. And if you want an archer or sorceress, you can't be a sorcerer. It sounds trivial, but I know guys that love being rangers and spell slingers, and I know I'm not alone in being a girl that wants to beat the living tar out of something with a sword.And its the oldest form of stereotyping genders. Dungeons and Dragons switches from doing it and not doing it, and they're back to it. Its on the books themselves. But I digress. I don't like being forced to be a guy or girl based on my class.

So that's a few of the free to play games out there. I don't know if this is helpful or not. Please comment and tell me what you think.

Una the Blade

Una the Blade

First off: http://myfacewhen.com/371/

Second, as much as she's wearing fantasy armor in some ways, she's not disproportional, she's not first and foremost wearing it to be sexy, she wants to protect her children first and foremost, and that capybara with a horn, its a unicorn according to the artist. So this looks amazing and I really want to see the comic when it starts.

Everyone was thinking it, I couldn't say it

I'll start off by saying that at times I can come off as cold or social awkward in general. But, I'm not going to talk about my lack of social skills, I'm going to talk about how I sometimes can't use the few social skills I have when I'm gaming or even in class, because I'm a girl.

I'll start when I played Dungeons and Dragons with my friends at one of their houses. There were about 11 people in my campaign, and it made for some chaotic moments, and I, being the only one noticing that we had gotten distracted, (besides the DM, but he never did anything about the chaos), would try to get us back on track.So I would try to quiet the group politely, but that never worked. So I resorted to one thing, yelling at the top of my lungs "SHUT UP!" And it was effective, the room went silent after that and we continued playing. And I know they called me a bitch behind my back, because I kept trying to keep the game going and we could barely play more than five minutes at a time. And I heard them too.

 After a while, I got tired of policing 10 boys at a time, and would rarely do it. My newly acquired boyfriend at the time did support me in my yelling for order. But him and the DM were the only ones. Looking back at it, I would bet that if anyone else in the group yelled at them to shut up, they wouldn't have said anything bad about him. But because I was a girl, I was being bitchy.

Fast forward a few months, I'm in my Government class and my teacher is the worst teacher ever. She's not cruel, she's not overly nice, she's lazy and sarcastic. I turn in a quarter of my work in that class and I have an A because she doesn't want to grade most of the busy work she hands out. I played through most of Pokemon Soul Silver in that class, and not in secret, right on the desk. I'm not alone in thinking that there's something wrong about the fact that I'm acing a class that I know nothing about while playing Pokemon. But my friends in that class and myself were scared to say anything. Not because we were girls, although she did make fun of me for being a feminist, but because we were out numbered by the people who loved her class for exactly what we found wrong about it. One girl was brave enough to call the teacher on her crap, and the teacher made fun of her in front of the whole class. She switched classes before the teacher did her public humiliation, but the idea stuck in my head that if I tried to make things right, even if it was common sense, I shouldn't speak up, I would be mocked for it.
My Women's lit class was vaguely similar in the way of challenging the girls who thought makeup was empowering, but I was still vocal in that class because of, well why is it that I was more vocal in that class? Was it because I knew they already thought I was a bitch, so its not like they had anything else I could be called? Was it because I wasn't challenged by an authority figure in my thoughts that were logical? Was it because of the number of guys in the class was so low, and they didn't care anyway? I don't know, but something about that class did make me not fear to stand up for myself.

Today, my friend wanted to give another friend an unfair advantage in a game, and even though both my boyfriend and I both find it unfair, I couldn't bring myself to speak up, because even if I phrase it exactly the way he does, it will probably come of as bitchy with me saying it, versus a guy saying it. Is this not how I should act? Probably, but unfortunately, most girls are conditioned to not speak up for some of the things that matter to us. Whether it be civil rights, or just having a fair game.

Plastic Man TV Pilot

Plastic Man TV Pilot - YouTube

It never went anywhere, but I kind of wish it did for how weird it is. But that works for Plasticman, although I'm confused at who its aimed to with that last line in there.

I'm sorry, Lara Croft

When I was about six, I saw my sister, who's eleven years older than me, play Tomb Raider on our PC. And I didn't know much about it because she'd shove me away. And about a year later after freaking out about me killing my only Sim, I could understand why she did what she did.

This box art has been burnt into my mind for a good 12 years.

Fast forward years later, I'm an incredible nerd in my senior year of high school. I have a Women's Lit class and we get on the topic of women in the media. I make the mistake of mentioning video games.

Them: Like Lara Croft? 

Me:Yes but she's not the only one and in-

Them: Angelina Jolie played her, making her the best woman character ever!

Me: But...

Them: makeup is empowering! http://myfacewhen.com/389/

Me:http://myfacewhen.com/312/

So through the rest of the year, I learned to despise Lara Croft, because they equated empowerment with a character that was equal parts sex object and protagonist. It was like Stiletto spy school, where only some of they school is about actual defense and fighting, the rest is being a sexy Bond girl. 

To her defense, Lara Croft was very progressive for her time, but that was about 12 years ago. Sure Samus was around then too, but only people who actually played video games knew that one. And I am in no way saying Samus is perfect. 

Congrats, you win! Btw, you were a woman the whole time.

The difference between Samus and Lara is that Samus, for the whole game, was androgynous for the whole thing. I guess what bothered me even more than the fact of Lara Croft topped the bounty hunter that I had a nickname after, was that she was the modern day. I know they'd scoff if I tried to pass off my old clothes as modern to them. Like if Chell, Alyx, Samus, Jade from Beyond Good and Evil, all the rpg games that have relatively ambiguous protagonists (partially because they're about 10 years old, but that's another subject), Lita and Ophelia in Brutal legend, who, although you can't play, are mainly a "we're here to rebel against the empire!" and are pretty strong. And Commander Shepard, where the story its self does not change because of gender.

And Lara has gotten better over the years, I'll admit it.

So I'm sorry Lara Croft in that I took out my aggression on you because of girls that don't know anything about video games or feminism. 

What If Male Superheroes Posed Like Wonder Woman On The David Finch Justice League Cover? Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movies and TV News and Rumors

What If Male Superheroes Posed Like Wonder Woman On The David Finch Justice League Cover? Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movies and TV News and Rumors

This is so awesome, I'm really glad I'm not the only one to point things like this out

Old Sonic games

So I've been playing Sonic the Hedgehog games for about 7 years, and still love some of the older games to this day. And to my happiness, I finally got my copy of Sonic Mega Collection back. So I played Sonic, Sonic 2, Sonic 3. I forgot how much I hated water stages, the warning music still freaks me out.

 for those who don't know the fear of it.

 Then Sonic and Knuckles, which takes me back to my fan girl days. Then there are locked games, then, of all games, Sonic 3D blast.

Dear God, where do I begin? It hurts to watch, the controls are terrible, and why do you give your friends rings? How do they access the Secret zone? Why are Flickies now important? They are in almost every other game, and find their way home fine on their own once you release them. The worse part is the controls, some people love this game, but it just hurt my eyes and my head with what a pain it is.

Then redemption came in the form of pinball. The game, Sonic Spinball is a good old pinball game for the Sega Mega Drive. The controlls are simple, and even if you die often (which even good pinball players regularly will) its fun enough that you don't care.

I haven't played any other games on the collection, but I'll play the others enough times to unlock them soon andreally debating if its worth the unlock to play Sonic 3D Blast a lot more. I might to a part two later once the rest are unlocked.

Masculinity and Femininty challenges

For those who don't know me, I'm not a girly girl. I rarely wear dresses, make up is only used for performances and job interviews. I keep my hair short specifically to not deal with styling. So there's that, but I have a weakness for the new My Little Pony series and I have a bit of a want to sew. So my boyfriend jokes that I am a girly girl. But he has long hair and also has some signs of being a brony.
My question lies not in am I a girly girl or is my boyfriend masculine enough, its why does it matter how masculine or feminine we are? The reason I ask this is sometimes when he teases me about being girly, I catch myself being defensive. Does it make me less of a feminist?Is it the ego that I've built up of being one of the guys, and that to be one of the guys in some groups, losing most femininity is almost essential? If so, what does that say about American society? To be in  a man's world you must assimilate to fit in? Then what happens when at times its just not you?
Dealing with masculinity and femininity is a tricky feat. And most questions tend to lead to more questions. So have fun thinking these questions over dear readers.

A little biased no?

So why is it that when you go in the DS and Wii section, its almost overwhelming how many imagine whatever, along with ballerina, cooking, babysitting and other similar games designed just for girls. Go to X Box and PS land, there is maybe a DDR game, or the Twilight trivia game, but not much in specific "girl games". Which leaves all groups in an awkward position; who's the more correct: Nintendo for having a small special market just for girls, or Sony and Microsoft, who don't have much in the way of specific market, but most games tend to not matter until on a microphone what gender you are?
          Of course Nintendo tends to aim for a much younger group than either of its competitors, but does that justify gender stereotyping? The one game I saw that was really made for young kids on X Box that was geared toward children that wasn't part of the Lego series was the Marvel Superhero Squad game, which is aimed for 5 year old boys.
          Sure there are some movie games on all systems, but that doesn't mean much considering that the game is, to nobody's amazement, a marketing tool over all. But look next time you go to a game store at what games are aimed at girls and what are aimed at guys and what systems each game is on.
           Why gamers that are way past this age group should care about these dumb games is simple: games made for young kids are used a lot as teaching tools. Whether this be in playing house, or memory, it teaches either using logic, or what roles are seen as normal, a lot like play fighting in the animal kingdom, its training. So think about what the games are teaching the girls. Although cooking is a good skill, why not an imagine fire fighter, or ace attorney mama? I'm just saying, why not do more in the way things that girls should do and do the same with the slowly appearing similar boy games?
 
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=252
Just saying, cooking mama games are fun, so why not executive mama?