The Gaming Drought Is Over
December 3rd, 2006I’ve been in a bit of a gaming drought, not finding any good games worth playing. I’ve got my eye on the Wii, but I’ve been burned by buying a game console too early in the development cycle, and then finding out that very few games come out for it, so I’ve decided to give the Wii a six month head start before deciding.
So what brought me out of the drought?
Lego Star Wars II
This is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: You play through the original trilogy, using Lego figures. There’s no dialogue, so if you don’t know the Star Wars movie plots, it makes no sense, but if you’re reading this in English, you probably know the plots.
It’s a little bit shooter, a little bit platformer, and overall just plain cute. Even my wife, who hates games, saw it and said “That’s almost cuter than our son!”, and she thinks quite highly of our son’s cuteness.
Bookworm Adventures
This is an RPG, to an extremely limited degree, based on Scrabble/Boggle. You fight enemies by making words out of a scramble of letters that you are given. You gain experience, allowing you to take more damage. You gain special items, like a shield that decreases damage, a bow that makes words with X, Y, or Z cause more damage, or a hammer that makes words that relate to metal (“tungsten”, “shiny”, “forge”) cause more damage.
It’s pretty goddamn awesome, and you can download the trial version from PopCap games.
December 3rd, 2006 at 7:27 pm
Whatever you do, do NOT be tempted by World of Warcraft. I picked it up shortly before I came to Germanyland, and I totally regret it. It can easily eat up all your time before you even realize it.
I came over carrying a bass clarinet, a backpack full of clothes, and a suitcase full of recording equipment. A year later, I’ve only used the clothes. Instead, I put hour after hour into something that’s basically an online softball team. It’s nice and fun and all, but there are definitely more rewarding ways to spend all that time.
December 4th, 2006 at 12:11 pm
I was tempted by WoW, but one of the great things about being married with kids is that it requires no willpower whatsoever to avoid that kind of temptation; I couldn’t play it if I tried.
It’s like being tempted to buy a Lamborghini, or being tempted to give up sleeping for good.