Average Girl Plays

GOG.com's Summer Sale

2013-06-18T23:49:00.000-04:00

It hit me a couple months ago that I finally own a PC that is fast enough to play some of the video games that were hot a few years ago. I also discovered that many of these games are fairly inexpensive now, especially from the direct-download sites. So while I was listening to a podcast where the presenters were reminiscing about older games, I took my browser for a little cruise over to GOG.com. What on earth did I do that for? They are running a summer sale, and my budget is tighter than an 1890s corset right now :-(.

GOG has 500 games for sale between now and 05 Jul, but they aren't all on sale at once. For instance, the Alan Wake bundle was on sale for $4.48 when I went, but there were only nine hours left to get that price. That is 90% off of the original price. There were several other games that were 50% off.

If you like older games, I'm sure you will find something cool. This is not a paid endorsement; I'm just really happy that I found this site. We've never bought games as soon as they were released, so my kids don't pay much attention to whether a game is new or old. I may have to check the couch pillows to see if I can get them a game or two to keep them occupied while school is out.

Making video games a family experience

2013-06-16T18:24:00.000-04:00

My husband ABM isn't into really into video games, but he will occasionally find a casual game that tickle his fancy and get obsessed with it for a while. His current obsession is Candy Crush Saga and he has dragged the family along with him. We've joined him happily, of course. The kids love it when their father steps into their world, so if he meets them halfway by finding a game he likes they will definitely join him.

Many adults complain that video games are an experience that isolates the participant, but I haven't seen that very much in our house. Candy Crush Saga is not a multi-player game but we treat it that way. We don't compare scores or how many stars we've gotten on each level, but we are all trying to race to the highest level. This isn't done in a cut-throat manner, however. Everyone is comparing playing tips with each other and giving each other tickets to open certain areas. This makes it feel like a group activity even though we aren't playing together on the same screen.

Another way that our family enjoys video games together is by playing single-player games as a group. We brainstorm on how to solve puzzles and pass the controller over to whoever is best at certain aspects of the game. Last month I started playing Red Dead Redemption on the Xbox with my daughter M and my son DJ. That game doesn't have many puzzles but there are actions such as herding the cows that I am not very good at, so my kids are more than happy to coach or take the controller and get me through a mission when my character has failed for the third or fourth time.

QUESTION: How does your family enjoy video games together?

Apps Gone Free: Where I find my free iOS apps

2013-04-26T18:30:00.000-04:00

There are a bajillion app recommendation sites on the internet, but I tend to find my apps in two ways. If I am at my laptop, I read reviews on Gamezebo. On my iPhone, I use an app called Apps Gone Free from a site called AppAdvice. As the name suggests, Apps Gone Free lets you know about other apps that are available for free, usually for a limited time. Here's a YouTube review by a guy with an charming Australian accent:

In the video, the presenter is using Apps Gone Free on an iPad, but you can use it on an iPhone, as well. I have it installed on both of my devices so I can download the app straight from Apps Gone Free. There have been plenty of times when I've typed the name of an app in the App Store but couldn't find it because the name was rather similar to other app names.

One of my favorite things about Apps Gone Free is that I never run across junk. I've used other apps like this and ended up with games that looked like they were created as part of a school project or something. Apps Gone Free says that they have a staff handpicking the apps and writing the blurbs instead of just using the promo copy, and to me it shows. What is on offer seems to go in cycles; for a while I ran across a lot of art-related programs and now there seems to be a lot of preschool apps. No matter what they feature, it all seems to be good.

I haven't spent much time on the AppAdvice website, but from what I've seen I would say it is worth a look. They have more in-depth app reviews and lists of apps centered around a theme like Mother's Day. Not all of the apps mentioned on the website are free, but there are plenty of cool ones I would never have found myself.

This is NOT a sponsored or paid post. I just really like this app :-).

May have finally reached Facebook game overload

2013-03-25T10:00:00.000-04:00

A few months ago, I wrote about how Facebook games could be a time suck. This became even more apparent to me recently when I joined a Facebook group devoted to a game I play regularly, Chefville by Zynga. Reading the messages in this group actually made me feel guilty that I wasn't playing more often. Members were checking in messages that read like this: "Sorry I haven't filled any requests today. I had to go to church and run some other errands." Really? Why on earth would you feel that you needed to apologize for living your life instead of playing a game? Well, it wasn't long before I posted a similar message myself. I thought that belonging to a game group would be fun because I would have other people to discuss the game with. Instead, I felt like I was a Chefville slacker who was letting her neighbors down by not playing often enough. Mind you, Chefville is a casual game, but being in this group gave me a sense of how players in more "serious" games like MMORPGs can get so engrossed that they fall behind in their homework or stop hanging out with real-life friends.

I'll be honest and admit that I let a few things slide while I was trying to keep up with not just Chefville, but the other nine simulation games I play on Facebook. When I took the time to do other things like play games in person with my kids and read books, it became quite evident that these games were more like work than fun. The Zynga games are the worst offenders with their multiple timed quests that require all your time plus the assistance of half your Facebook friends list. I went into overload mode for a while, but I think I am finally ready to wean myself from this particular pastime. You'll still see me gaming on Facebook, but it will most likely be other games that give me time to breathe.

What I'm playing on my iOS devices

2013-03-22T19:52:00.001-04:00

As of last Christmas, I have pretty much turned into an iOS gal. ABM found two iPad 2 tablets for a great price at our favorite pawn shop, so he picked those up for us. I sold my Android tablet to his best friend, and he gave his Android tablet to our daughter C2 because her cheapo Android tablet from Christmas 2011 bit the dust. I now have both a phone and a tablet running on iOS 6. As much as I used to grouse about Apple not being the only game in town, I must admit owning iOS devices is enjoyable for cheap gamer like me. There are so many more free and freemium apps available for iOS, and the graphics don't look like they were created by a 3rd grader. Anyway, here are a few of the games that I am playing right now:

Fairway Solitaire (review on JayIsGames): This is a Big Fish game I just discovered recently, but it has been around since 2007 when it started as a desktop game. If I had found it back then, I would have been just as enamored as I am now. I think that older folks like me, who got their first computers in the 1980s when they all came with Klondike, have a soft spot for solitaire games. As the title suggests, it adds golf-related hurdles like sand traps and water hazards to the card play. There are also plenty of trophies, which I like because I enjoy working toward something in a casual game. The games displays well on the iPhone 4S without making me squint, and the occasional comments from the golf announcers are amusing.

Gems with Friends (review on Gamezebo): As you may have guessed from the name, this game is part of Zynga's "With Friends" line. I've been playing this game for months and I am still obsessed with it. There is something about matching up the numbers that is almost like meditation to me. I play it right before bed and it calms me down. The one downside for me is that this is a competition game and most of my friends don't play video games. Luckily, there is a random opponent feature that quickly finds me a match when I want one. I usually go through at least 10 games before I settle down to sleep.

Pocket Planes (review on Gamezebo): Although I installed this game several weeks ago, I didn't start playing it until this week. I was a regular Tiny Tower player when I had my Android tablet, and this game scratches that same itch. The simplicity of buying airports and scheduling flights keeps me checking my iPad over and over. I started out playing this on my phone, but I didn't like scrolling so much to see various parts of the map so I switched to the iPad. It is much more enjoyable for me that way. This game is also available for Android, and I wasted no time getting C2 (who was also a fan of Tiny Tower) hooked on it. I wonder which one of us will be the first to buy all the airports in North America?

There are many, many more games that I am playing. In fact, I have been playing so many games that I was falling behind on more important tasks! I'll do another post soon on games that have very little going for them, but I keep playing them.

Facebook gaming can be a time suck -- duh!

2013-01-28T19:56:00.000-05:00

If you took a look at my most-played games on Facebook, they are of the homestead-building or city-building variety. I blame my introduction to Harvest Moon and The Sims franchise roughly 12 years ago. Something about manipulating the lives of little imaginary people and assigning them tasks appeals to me. I never enjoyed playing with dolls, but I imagine that this is what playing with dolls felt like for all my childhood acquaintances.

Unlike playing with dolls, games on Facebook don't freeze in time until you come back. I don't feel guilty if I get bored with a game like Song Pop and don't play it for a while, but I almost feel as though I am neglecting something important if I don't go back to Chefville for several days. My food will be burnt and several quests will have expired. These aren't the kind of games that you can lose, but having lots of unfinished appliances all over my imaginary restaurant does make it look that way.

I have been spending so much of my leisure time maintaining my pretend restaurant and my pretend theme park and my pretend farm that I haven't had time to try other games or read books or blog. Moderation in all things! The world won't end if I play these games for a little while and then move on.

Is anyone playing Clucks?

2012-10-27T15:30:00.004-04:00

I still maintain an AOL email address, and one of ads on the log-in page is for an iOS game called Clucks. Apparently AOL is trying to shed its old image and move into the mobile content business. I downloaded the free app several weeks ago but didn't try it out until today.

As you can see in the video, it is a mobile version of the old party game Taboo.You try to get your opponent to guess a certain word without using certain other words. For instance, you would try to get someone to guess the word "basketball" without using the words "court", "ball", or "dunk". The game makes use of video to record your clue and voice recognition to make sure you don't cheat and use any of the forbidden words in your description. Unlike many other iOS games, Clucks is actually taking advantage of the capabilities of a smartphone in a clever way. So why doesn't anyone seem to be playing it?

Whenever I decide to try a new game or write a post about it, I do a quick search on Google to see what other bloggers are saying about it. I'll be the first to admit that I don't always have my finger on the pulse of pop culture, and a game could be catching on like wildfire and I'm just coming to it late. However, when I did a search for reviews of Clucks, almost everything I found was dated 27 Sep 2012 (the date the game launched). There is very little information after that date, though. I've sent out several invitations to play through the app, too, and haven't gotten a nibble yet.

Several of the articles I read about Clucks featured comments from AOL spokespeople saying that this game is the first step in reinvigorating the AOL brand. Grand plans, but I think they need to focus on getting higher visibility for the game first.

UPDATE: An AOL spokesperson mentioned in the comments section of this post that the game will be open to non-Facebook users soon. That may help lure a few more people into playing.

Gaming on vacation

2012-09-12T20:49:00.001-04:00

What do you do when you will be spending five days either riding in a car or lounging in a deck chair? If you are me, you take this time to test out the many free games that you have downloaded obsessively to your tablet but never played. I have 24 games on my Android tablet and 13 games on my iPhone that I haven't tried yet. With several days away from the temptations of TV and the internet, it will be much easier for me to focus on playing and writing about games. So don't be surprised if there is a flurry of activity on this blog in the next few weeks.

UPDATE: Gaming on vacation was a bust. Unlike my previous vacations, this time I had a car full of people with devices that needed to be charged. Also, my daughter's tablet stopped working right before we left, so as a good mother I handed mine over. Luckily, my Zune mp3 player had a long battery life because I ended up listening to audio books on the long drive down to Florida. Oh, well -- there is always next year when it will just be my husband and me on vacation!

Off The Leash: An endless runner that's gone to the dogs

2012-09-03T16:37:00.002-04:00

I quickly figured out after getting my iPhone this past January that I'm not very good at endless runner games. I've tried Temple Run, Stylish Sprint, and a host of others. Usually I get frustrated because I have to start over every 10 seconds. Then I found Off The Leash by Big Pixel Studios. I'm still not very good at the endless runner genre but this game at least gives me a fighting chance.

Off the Leash is a free iOS game where you play a dog who is running from the law. Apparently dogs have been outlawed in your town so you are trying not to get caught. You grab other dogs along the way to create your pack and help you grab coins and food. As in other endless runners, you can use the coins you collect to buy power-ups, buy a new dog, or dress up the dog you have.

There are several aspects of this game that make it more appealing to me and my game-playing preferences. First off, the view is top-down, which is easier for me than first-person or side-scrolling views. Second, your character doesn't fall off of cliffs or anything. This is a timed game, so as long as you pick up enough dogs and food, you add to your time and can keep going. When you run into obstacles, your time bank decreases but your game doesn't end right away. Third, there are missions for you to complete. Anyone who has seen how many hours I spend on Facebook games knows that I like a game with a goal.

If you like endless runner games but have gotten bored with running through the jungle, try taking a jaunt through the park with Off The Leash.

Should I buy the Zombies, Run! app?

2012-08-17T16:21:00.003-04:00

Zombies, Run! -- not to be mistaken for the multitude of iOS and Android apps that have the words "zombie" and "run" in the title -- is a unique fitness app. In between songs on your exercise playlist, you get bits of a story about a city that has become overrun by zombies. You aren't a passive listener, though. You are Runner 5, someone who has been sent in to help. Before you can do anything, however, you've got to make it into the compound. As you run (or in my case, walk) you will pick up items that may be useful. When you hear "Zombies Detected", you need to pick up speed to avoid them. Get caught too many times and you will fail the mission. Once you finish your exercise session, you use the items you picked up to level up buildings in the compound. The game starts with three episodes unlocked, and you get more as you level up.

There are a lot of things to like about Zombies, Run!:

--While there are plenty of fitness apps that cater to those who enjoy earning achievements and beating their friends, this app also provides something to do while you are exercising. If you dislike exercise as much as I do, you will grab onto anything that makes it bearable.

--You use your own playlist. This is big for me because one of the Wii games I really liked, Walk It Out, started to bore me before I unlocked everything in the game because of the limited playlist. I would have finished that game if I could have added my own music.

--You can use Zombies, Run! outside or inside. Other apps record your exercise session by using GPS to track your route, so they are no good if you walk on a treadmill or if you are using a device like an iPod that doesn't have phone service. With this game you have the option of using the accelerometer, which the iPod does have, to count your steps.

--You can go at your own speed. Despite the title, you don't really have to run. As long as you speed up when the zombies start chasing you, it counts. I started at 2 mph on the treadmill and bumped it up to 3 mph when the zombie horde came after me. That may not sound like much to you, but 3 mph at my fitness level causes me to break a sweat. I still managed to evade the horde.

If there are so many things to recommend this game, then why am I hesitating to get it? Frankly, it is the $7.99 price tag. Before you reach for your mouse to click the Comment link so you can lecture me, let me save you the trouble. I do believe that creators deserve to be paid for their work. However, it is difficult to pay $7.99 for an app when the most I've paid is $2.99. I even had trouble paying that since I usually stick to free apps. Another reason for my hesitation is that I already bought the app for my daughter M. She did such a great job devoting her summer to fitness and getting rid of that "freshman 15" she gained at university that I wanted to reward her. Now I'm having trouble making myself buy the app a second time.

For those of you who don't have my spending phobia, I recommend Zombies, Run! as a way to get you off the couch or spice up your existing exercise routine. It is available for the devices you are most likely to carry on a run: iPod, iPhone, Android phone, and even Windows phone. If you get it, let me know what you think of it.

What we've been playing

2012-07-15T16:34:00.000-04:00

We've never had much of an active lifestyle, but with the heat wave and me losing my job and my son recovering from surgery we have spent the summer vacation indoors. That means there has been more gaming going on, so here is a look at what we've been playing.

CARD GAMES: My kids dragged out the card games Dutch Blitz and Landlord. They even took the time to look up the play instructions online because I lost the instruction sheet a while back. That heartens me because I've been worrying about my kids' ability to entertain themselves. Their willingness to dig through the garage and play around with what they discover reminds me of my childhood summers living in the country with very little access to new entertainment sources. Another cool thing is seeing other kids from the neighborhood come over to our house and ask to play cards. I guess other parents don't buy card games. I have found that my kids won't ask for card games as gifts, but they are eager to play them when I buy them.

CONSOLE GAMES: My nephew has a souped-up Wii with all of his games saved on the hard drive so he doesn't have to carry discs around. He brought it over the last two weekends he stayed with us. The most notable games we played were Trivial Pursuit and Jeopardy. I am accustomed to being the trivia and word game master among our family and friends -- so much so that we usually don't play those types of games. Let me tell you, I got schooled by my kids. Not only did they know more than I expected, but even on the questions they didn't know they were able to make good educated guesses. I look forward to playing more trivia games with them.

PC GAMES: Only my kids could turn a single-player hidden object game into a competition. M and C2 decided to start playing Grim Tales: The Bride at the same time and see who could finish it first. It was no contest; C2 is the queen of hidden object games in this house. I can download a game for her in the morning and she will be done with it by bedtime.

My favorite form of gaming -- playing casual games online -- has taken a nosedive. The kids can't ever agree on what to watch on TV, so they spend a good part of the day streaming video on the various devices in the house. This makes it nearly impossible for me to play games on Facebook. I guess I'll have to wait until they go back to school to resume my normal online activities.

Song Pop: A 21st-century version of Name That Tune

2012-07-02T19:41:00.002-04:00

When I was in elementary school, I enjoyed the game show Name That Tune. Even at a young age I was pretty good at guessing songs. Now Freshplanet is bringing the fun of that game into the mobile gaming age with Song Pop. My kids and I have been playing it all afternoon with great gusto.

The game is so easy to jump into that there is no tutorial. You create a game with someone from either your Facebook list, your email contacts, or a random person. Then you pick a playlist like 90s Alternative or Modern Rap. After a quick 3-2-1 countdown, a clip of a song starts playing and you have to pick either the song title or the name of the artist from a list of four choices. There are five songs per round and then the challenge is sent to your opponent, who will try to identify those same five songs faster than you did. The person who had the fastest time overall wins that round.

Song Pop ticks several of the boxes on my mental list of characteristics I like in an app. It is cross-platform, so I can play with my friends whether they are on Facebook, Android, or iOS. It is a freemium game that is still fun even if I choose not to put a penny of real-world money into it because the coins you earn from each round can be saved up to unlock more playlists. One of my favorite characteristics is the ability to play a random opponent; so many casual games lose their allure for me because I can't get past a certain point if I don't have at least five friends who regularly play the game.

Even though you don't need to have a lot of friends playing this game, I think I could talk some of my non-gamer friends into playing this. I have found that among my pals there is a group that wouldn't go near an Xbox and finds Facebook games like Castleville boring, but they have 20 games of Words with Friends and Draw Something on the go at all times. Song Pop is the type of game that would appeal to them.

Thoughts on Township

2012-06-18T12:00:00.000-04:00

Last week I spent some time playing Township, a city-building game from 6waves. It is playable on Google+ and Facebook. I decided to try it out because 6waves has created some other games that I enjoy a lot, like Astro Garden and Ravenskye City. Unfortunately, this game doesn't look like one I will be playing for long.

There are some positive aspects to the game, like the energy system. With Township you can perform actions in your city as long as you want; no waiting for an energy bar to refill. You may have to wait for a crop to grow but that's it. Also, the graphics are attractive, which makes a difference when the tasks are somewhat mundane.

That is the downfall of Township -- the tasks are mundane and repetitive. There isn't even much of a story to go along with the quests. As a player, you are adding to an existing city but for what reason? Most other games in this genre give you at least a basic reason like a hurricane destroyed the town or an evil prince cast a spell over the town. All I've been doing in the game is planting wheat, then making flour, then making bread, then planting wheat again. Without a story, it is more apparent that I am doing the same thing over and over.

The company 6waves has created some games that I go back to again and again, but Township is one I will skip.

My Thoughts on the Raven games

2012-06-12T17:02:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I finally got around to playing Ravenshire Castle. It is the third installment in 6waves' group of "Raven" games for Facebook. I've been playing Ravenwood Fair and Ravenskye City for a while, so I figured I would give this one a try. All three games are of the city-building variety. That makes it sound as if all the games are pretty much the same, but there are some key differences and I like different aspects of each game.

Ravenshire Castle is similar to Zynga's Castleville in theme. Your character shows up at the castle and is mistaken for a royal by Prince Patrick. The kingdom has been ruined by an opposing force so there are a lot of diseased trees to chop down and structures to be rebuilt.What makes this game different is that there is more of a sense that you are competing against other players (PvP, the gamer types call it). You have to sneak into other people's castles and search for the trinkets you need to rebuild things without getting caught by the guards who are constantly moving through the corridors. It isn't terribly challenging to avoid them, but it does give more of a feeling that you are actually playing a game rather than just clicking on items.

Gamezebo did a review of Ravenshire Castle about a month ago. I agree with most of the criticisms. Although the graphics are the most advanced of the series, I can't appreciate them if my computer can't render them. The game was glitchy even on the speedy work computer. I honestly prefer the graphics and animation in Ravenskye City. They are prettier than Ravenwood Fair but they don't slow my laptop down. It is strangely relaxing to pull up Ravenskye City and just chop down vines at the end of a stressful day.

All three of the games suffer from one of the most common problems in Facebook games: lack of friends who play. Luckily the fans of these games have found a workaround for this. On the game forums you can post a link for an item you need, and another player can click that link and give it to you without being your friend on Facebook. It is still time-consuming to seek out and click all those links, so I only do it for Ravenskye City.

That leads me to which game I find more compelling. Although I still go back to Ravenwood Fair just to cut down trees (again, it is strangely relaxing), I find that the story for Ravenskye City is more fully realized. Reading the history and the feuds between the NPCs gives you more of a reason for the quests you are completing. The PvP twist of Ravenshire Castle doesn't make me want to stick with it. If I was to recommend only one of the three, it would be Ravenskye City.

Facebook Games: My Current Favorites

2012-04-30T15:35:00.003-04:00

Gameplay on Facebook goes in cycles for me. I latch on to a game and play it until I get stuck or until it becomes overwhelming. For instance, Pioneer Trail is an example of a game that literally became too much for most of the computers to which I have access. There are so many items on my homestead that the game can take 15 minutes to load, if it bothers to load at all. Other games, like Wild West Town, are not widely accepted by my group of Facebook friends so I barely get past the tutorial and then my progress stalls. I know that the idea of Facebook games is being social, but I think game creators should add some balance for the players who don't know many people who want to play games.

Anyway, despite these issues, I still visit Facebook daily for a quick hit of fun and these are the games I'm playing:

Ravenwood Fair -- This is a city-building game where you are trying to build a fair to entertain a bunch of woodland creatures. There are far too many quests to keep up with, but you can delete the seasonal ones once the holiday has passed (unlike in Zynga games). Even though I can't make a dent in the quests at this point, I find it calming to click on the trees and make them disappear.

Ravenskye City -- This is another city-building game that is related to Ravenwood Fair. I like it because I can continue to progress without too much help from my Facebook friends. Even on the quests that require help, you can go on the game's forums, help random players who aren't on your friend list, and they usually return the favor. The storyline seems less random in this game than in other ones.

Astro Garden/Big Farm Theory -- These are both the same game, so which one you pick really depends on which one your friends are playing. This farming game is filled with vibrant colors and it is another game where you don't have to have many friends to progress. I've been playing for over a month with only three neighbors and have yet to run into a quest that I couldn't complete. The bulk of the gameplay involves growing vegetables that can be used as components in creating more outlandish vegetables. Unlike Farmville, nothing you grow and none of the money you earn seems irrelevant. I can see myself playing this for a while.

Sushido -- This is a recent addition to my daily list of diversions. It is a match-3 game combined with a Diner Dash sort of game. You match sushi ingredients to provide the ingredients needed for the dish that the customer wants. If you don't do it quickly enough, the customer becomes angry and leaves. This is a simple game to understand but tough to play. It took me a while to realize that I have to match unrelated things to try to make other ingredients appear. It never fails that the customer is looking for cucumber slices but there is nothing but fish and rice on the screen. Still I keep playing; a timer will bring me back to a game time and again.

Bejeweled Blitz -- Speaking of games with timers, I play this one a lot. Ever since PopCap Games created a version for the iPhone that connects to Facebook, I've been playing whenever I am stuck waiting somewhere. The version on Facebook itself slows down after playing a few games; it is a condition that a lot of Facebook games suffer from called memory leak, I believe. I don't have that problem with the phone version. This means I get the speedy game play wherever I happen to be and it still shows up on the leaderboard with my Facebook friends.

Although I still enjoy this daily rotation of games, I feel like I need to branch out and try some new ones. I read Gamezebo regularly and there seems to be at least one new Facebook game released every week. Now that I have shaken off the mental funk caused by my broken foot, I'm ready to do some sampling of the new Facebook wares.

Temple Run is now on Android

2012-03-27T11:37:00.003-04:00

When I pulled up my Twitter feed this morning, the first tweet to catch my eye was the news that Temple Run is on Android. I already have the game on my iPhone and it plays pretty well, but I made the mistake of pulling it up on an iPad in Best Buy and that diminished my enjoyment of the smaller version somewhat. Also my daughter C2, who opted for an Android tablet rather than an iOS device like her siblings, keeps grabbing my iPhone to play the game. I'm sure she will be excited to learn that she can finally have the game on her own device.

For those not in the know, Temple Run is part of a genre called "endless run". I've never seen this style of game on desktop PC but it is pretty popular on tablets and phones right now. In an endless run game, you don't control your character's forward motion. He is constantly running and you move him out of the way of obstacles. You are trying to keep him running for as long as possible. In the case of Temple Run, you are being chased by monsters so you try to pick up as many coins as you can along the way to buy power-ups like invisibility or extra speed. I'm not very good at games that require quick reflexes, but every time I crash into a wall on this game I immediately want to try again. It is easy for me to see how this game drew people's attention away from Angry Birds.

I didn't have an iPad handy when I wrote this post, so I compared the Android version to the one on my iPhone. The gameplay was exactly the same in both versions. The only difference I noticed was in the graphics. The colors in the Android version weren't as bright and the edges weren't as crisp. I'm not sure if this is due to the display capabilities of my tablet or the differences in programming for Android versus iOS. However, this is a minor difference and in my opinion it shouldn't keep anyone from enjoying the game. I know it isn't going to stop C2!

OMGPOP and Draw Something

2012-03-21T13:00:00.003-04:00

My daughter C1 introduced me to the gaming site OMGPOP several months ago. C1 and her siblings all signed up and played for a couple weeks but eventually abandoned it. Although there were a few fun games, none of their friends were playing. When I played, it almost seemed as if the other users of the site were NPCs rather than real people so I didn't stick around long, either. Imagine my surprise when I found that the game C1 has been playing obsessively on her iPod Touch these days is Draw Something, a game from OMGPOP that has been ported to iOS, Android, and Facebook. It has caught so much attention that Zynga is now interested in buying OMGPOP. This news prompted me to give the site another look.

I spent about an hour poking around the OMGPOP site and found that I still don't like it much. While the graphics are engaging, most of the games are brightly colored takes on game concepts like match-3 and solitaire with no new twists added. None of my online friends play on this site and playing with strangers wasn't much fun. Since the last time I played, OMGPOP has added an option where you can post a link on Twitter or Facebook to get your friends to play. I tried that but didn't get any takers from my feeds, just random OMGPOP players. The only way I see myself revisiting this site is if Zynga buys it. Many of my Facebook friends are Zynga-loyal, so I imagine I could find others to play with me once Zynga puts their PR machine to work.

My experience with Draw Something was more pleasant. The game is basically like Pictionary between two people. You can invite one of your friends or let the game match you with a random opponent. When it is your turn to draw, you get a choice between three words and each word has a coin value. You draw the word with your finger on the touchscreen and send it to your friend. If your friend guesses it, you get the coins for that word. You are given a basic palette of colors but you can spend the coins you earn to buy more colors. I didn't have any trouble finding people to play with and it is fun to see the word picture being drawn rather than being presented with the completed picture all at once. Although I couldn't get the Facebook version of the game to load, the Android and iOS versions worked fine for me. If you log in with your Facebook info, then your games follow you from device to device. I prefer playing the game on my Android tablet just because it gives me a bigger screen to draw on. This game almost makes me wish I had my old Palm back with its stylus so my drawings would be more accurate.

I would definitely recommend skipping the site and downloading Draw Something to one of your devices instead. It is the best of the OMGPOP bunch.

About to Say Goodbye to Zombie Island

2012-03-19T13:20:00.000-04:00

Zombie Island is a Facebook game by 6wave LOLapps. There isn't a lot of explanation at the beginning of the game, but as far as I can tell you play a zombie who is trying to become human. If you have played games like Farmville and Pioneer Trail, then you are halfway towards knowing how to play this game. Gameplay revolves around planting crops, erecting buildings, and collecting items needed to complete missions.

The biggest twist that Zombie Island has to offer is in its energy mechanic. In most city building games, you have a certain number of energy units and each action you perform burns one unit. Once you burn up your units, you can either buy more, get more from your friends, or wait until the energy meter refills on its own. With Zombie Island you are the leader of the tribe and other zombies do the work like cutting down trees. As long as you have a brain available, then your zombie will work. This is great for me because I often want to play for longer than five minutes at a time.

Despite the cute graphics and fun animations, I am on the verge of dropping Zombie Island from my daily game list. There are a lot of good games on Facebook that become unplayable shortly after you get through the tutorial levels if you don't either put in real-world money or have a lot of Facebook friends who are also playing that game. Zombie Island falls into this category. I only have three active neighbors in Zombie Island and two of them have already reached the level in the game where your zombie becomes human. From what I've read in the FAQ, there isn't much reason to play the game once you get to that point. It has become a frustrating experience to log in every morning and not be able to do much, and there are so many other games to try that I may not continue with this one.

Do You Play With Sound?

2012-02-28T16:30:00.000-05:00

One aspect of video games that I haven't mentioned very much in my blog posts is the sound. That is because I rarely play my games with the sound on. As a matter of fact, the first thing I do when I try a new game is look for the options menu so I can press Mute. There are games that I've played for months and then read reviews commenting on how wonderful the music and sound effects are, and then it hits me that I have never even heard the music.

Why do I mute the sound on games? I do it for a variety of reasons. Ever since the release of the original Sim City, the prime time for me to play games is late at night while my husband and kids are sleeping. I don't want to disturb the quiet of a sleeping house with a bunch of bleeps and bloops. When I play games during the day, it is usually while I am talking to someone or watching TV, so the game sounds would be distracting. What about when I'm playing alone? Well, I could listen to the game soundtrack then, but I am so accustomed to playing without it that the music becomes monotonous to me after a few minutes.

I am making more of an effort to play with the sound on these days because I feel like I am missing part of the game experience. It never bothered me before, but as games become more complex the sounds become more sophisticated. I don't want to miss anything!

Same Game, Different Titles -- Why?

2012-02-24T13:30:00.001-05:00

Facebook and the casual game market are filled with look-alike or copycat games. I just wrote about an example of that in my last post. This week, however, I discovered two versions of the same exact game on Facebook and I can't figure out the reasoning behind that.

Astro Garden is a farming game run by 6waves. There isn't much that sets it apart from Frontierville or Farmville, but I'm a sucker for pretty graphics so I started playing it. Somehow I got distracted during the opening of the game and I missed what the story was and why I was growing vegetables that looked like they were from outer space. When I did a search on Facebook for the game's page, I found another game called The Big Game Theory and an entry on the wall from 06 Feb 2012 saying that they were starting a common project with 6waves called Astro Garden. As I said, I like the graphics in Astro Garden so I thought I would go ahead and try The Big Game Theory. Both games are identical!

I don't understand what the advantage is of having two copies of the same game on Facebook. What incentive is there to choose one over the other? Why would a person play both? It seems like the fan base would be split.

Tiny Tower vs. Dream Heights

2012-02-21T12:00:00.000-05:00

One perennial topic of discussion in the casual gaming press is companies copying each other's games. A company that has been accused of this more than once is Zynga, and they have come under fire again for the similarity of their new game Dream Heights to a game by NimbleBit called Tiny Tower. I have embedded two YouTube videos so you can see for yourself how much the games are alike.

I downloaded Tiny Tower for my iPhone before Dream Heights was even released. It was one of those games that I download because I've heard it mentioned in passing by several people as a fun game. I didn't really know what the game was about, but I figured I would suss it out as I played. Once I tried it, however, I had trouble understanding what to do. The 8-bit graphics that other players found charming were grainy to my poor old eyes and difficult for me to decipher. The pop-ups at the start of the game gave minimal instruction. Although I prefer my tutorial to be provided in-game, I would have welcomed a separate how-to page, but I couldn't find one in the game's menu. I ended up deleting Tiny Tower after a couple days.

Zynga has a pretty good cross-promotional strategy. If an ad for a new Zynga pops up while I'm playing Scramble with Friends, I will most likely download it and give it a try. That's how I ended up with Dream Heights, and like other Zynga titles, I had no trouble jumping right into the gameplay. The graphics were clear and the opening tutorial was easier for me to understand. Playing Dream Heights actually made me want to download Tiny Tower again. This time I was able to understand a lot of the stuff I couldn't figure out before, especially the ratings that help you match the right person to the right job.

As for Zynga copying NimbleBit's game, I have conflicting thoughts on that. I know that it isn't fair for a multimillion dollar company with over 2500 employees to steal the ideas of a little indie company that amount to three guys in the den. However, for me, Dream Heights is an improvement on the original concept and the one I would pick if I could only keep one. I still feel guilty about siding with the game world's robber baron, though.

The New Why and What of This Blog

2012-02-19T19:23:00.002-05:00

When I originally created this blog in 2007, I created a post that explained why you should read this blog and what to expect. My gaming life has changed, so I thought that it might be a good idea to revisit that post and give you guys an update.

Why do you want to listen to my advice on games? I believe the ideal reader for this blog is someone older who is trying to fit fun into a busy life. As a 45-year-old wife and mother, I enjoy games but I don't have the endless time to devote to them the way a teenager does. I also don't have a generous allowance with which to buy games, so I will continue to focus mainly on games that are cheap or free and games that can be rented.

What style of games do I like to play? The answer to this question has changed the most since 2007. Although I am still interested in board games, I don't play them much any more. Nowadays, I play mostly casual games. In particular, I'm hooked on the diversions offered by Facebook. In the past year I've acquired both an Android tablet and an iPhone, so I am exploring the offerings for those platforms, as well. No category will be completely off-limits, though. If I get a chance to play a board game or an XBox 360 title, I will most likely comment on it here.

Who do I play games with? Well, since I am mostly playing casual games now, I don't really play "with" anyone. None of my real-life friends or family enjoy the Facebook games so I have recruited strangers from the game forums to be my "friends". As for the iPhone and Android games, I compete with my kids to be the top of our own personal leaderboard, much the same way I competed with my friends as a teenager to have my initials next to the high score on Centipede in the arcade.

My hope is that this blog will be one more source in helping you make a decision about what games will get a portion of your limited free time.

Here I Go Again

2012-02-17T13:41:00.002-05:00

When I decided to restart this blog and write a new post to end the hiatus, the lyrics to the Whitesnake song kept echoing in my head:

"Here I go again on my own
Going down the only road I've ever known."

Those words encapsulate my thoughts on blogging lately. The blog written by an individual for fun (and possibly a little money -- let's be real) seems to have fallen out of fashion, and is making way for blogs by companies or individuals trying to market themselves as a brand. Others are turning away from blogging to express their thoughts on social networks like Twitter or Facebook. I guess I am an online dinosaur in this respect. I visit lots of professional blogs and participate in several social networks, but when I really have thoughts to share I want to do it in a corner of the internet that I can call my own. Hence, the relaunching of this blog.

After a long period where I wasn't playing much of anything, I find myself consumed with playing games again and I want to share my thoughts on what I've been playing. Although I do read sites like Gamezebo and the individual games have sites with their own forums, commenting in those places feels like writing my words on the last page of a notebook. I want to put my thoughts on the front page by using this blog. Even if only five people read this, it will have served its purpose as a place where I can go back and find what I wrote more easily than trying to sift through boards on someone else's site. Basically, I'm inviting you to read my personal gaming diary. I hope you enjoy it!

The Official Hiatus Post

2011-01-23T12:54:00.000-05:00

If there is anyone left reading this blog, then consider this post my official white flag. I surrender. There won't be any more entries posted to this blog for a while.

I started this blog when I was still unemployed and thought that I would have plenty of time to play games and write about them. Frankly, I was suffering under the delusion that I could pick up a little extra money from blogging. I started this blog and a book reading blog for that purpose. Since I overestimated both my writing skill and my ability to stick to a writing schedule, I never really made a go of it.

I can't quite bring myself to delete this blog because I might return to it when my current job contract is over and I'm sitting at home twiddling my thumbs again. In the meantime, any game-related thoughts I have will be posted at my personal blog.

Casual Game: My Kingdom for the Princess

2010-09-27T12:57:00.000-04:00

Description from Big Fish Games:

A terrible tornado has been turned the kingdom upside down! The beautiful Princess Helen must return to her sick father, King Olgert, but the roads are in ruins, the hamlets are destroyed, and a hungry dragon circles the skies above. Rebuild the empire from the ground up and fix the destroyed towns. Help the brave and noble knight, Arthur, restore the land using your Time Management talents in My Kingdom for the Princess!

My thoughts:

Many of the time-management games I've played start out to be mildly fun, only to devolve into a game of "how fast can you click?". There isn't much strategy involved. My Kingdom for the Princess is different.

Like games such as Farm Frenzy, on each level you are given a task that must be completed before nightfall, such as repairing three roads and two bridges. The difference is that if you don't pick up resources and use them in the right order, you could end up stuck with no way to finish the task in the allotted time. There are many options on the board that you don't necessarily have to use to complete the task. For instance, you may use up your resources upgrading every single mill, market, and mine, only to find that your resources won't replenish in time for you to beat the level. You could also spend your time trying to unblock one road to get all the resources at the end of it, but then run of time to unblock the road that will end the level. For me, this makes it more interesting to repeat a level because it is not just a matter of trying to do it faster. I actually have to figure out a different order to do things in to make sure I finish the task on time.