This is gonna be all over the place

So, I don't have the brain power to write one coherent post about anything so, I'm just gonna blab about whatever for a bit.

Been playing mostly Vita lately, I really love that damn thing.

So lets see, I stepped away from Persona 4 for a bit, though I love t he hell out of that game. I'd seriously be hard pressed to say who my favorite character is, I love em all...except Rise, she fucking irks me with her cutesy slutty ways.

Tried the demo for Sumioni...its quite pretty but, I feel I need more hands. Way too much shit going on. move with the analog stick or d-pad, X to attack, slash the screen to draw ledges, press the little water symbol on the corner to turn the ink into water to then touch the screen and destroy projectiles, press L to switch to the magic screen and then slash the screen to then hit L again so that the ink becomes fire...Fuck that shit, I'm too damn awkward and spazzy to do all that. so, thinking I'm gonna have to pass on it.

Next I started Uncharted Fight for Fortune, if you've never heard of it, well not surprising. Its a card game. I ain't got no game! I seriously have ZERO strategy at shit like this yet I found myself really enjoying it and playing for a while. Probably play a little more today.

Because PS+ put SC Broken Destiny up free I decided, hey what the hell and downloaded it. Man I had forgotten what utter shit that game is. No actual story mode, just challenges which I suck at because I button mash or quick matches. Not to mention how absolutely hideous the game is. Even the original SC on XBL looks better. Its just one blurry pixelated mess. I actually thought maybe my screen was dirty at first, but no, the game is just fugly. Oh well, I could use the space, my memory card is almost full so, time to hit delete on that.

Also tried playing some AC Liberation. Its a pretty game and the action is good enough but...so far I can't discern any story whatsoever. I also have a big problem with the whole costume change mechanic. On one hand, its pretty cool, different outfits to get you into different places. On the other hand its an utter pain in the ass and feels likes its only there to pad out the game. Do something as the lady and my notoriety goes up, but unlike say AC 2 where I pay heralds and rip down posters to lower it I have to instead run around town shanking witnesses, but not as the lady cause there are ALWAYS witnesses around so I have to do it as the slave, then the slave notoriety goes up, so then I have to run around ripping down posters to lower that. Too much time running around lowering notoriety, not enough time actually forwarding the story, well if I could find a story. Also, I cannot stand the French and Spanish accents. I LOVE playing AC2 cause I love the Italian accents going on but...this game...a "Spanish" Captain was talking to a French Governor and I wanted to stab a pencil in my ears. Thickest Spanish accent I can think of is Antonio Banderas and his accent isn't a third as painful. I mean seriously we do NOT roll our damn Rs THAT hard.

what else...Oh yeah, I got Soul Hackers for DS, haven't played very much of it yet but so far I dig it. While aside from 3D its pretty much a direct port of the game it still looks pretty decent and I'm already interested in knowing wtf is going on with the story so yay. Hopefully I'll get to put a bit more time into that soon. Still haven't gotten back to Mirror of Fate either.

Played some Dynasty Warriors Next as well. I really love all that wholesome DW hack n slash. Just slaughtering a shitload of dudes with a damn fan or whatever. What I DO NOT like is the Duel mechanic on the Vita. So, every so often you run into an important officer and you have to engage in a rubbing match.
you slash the screen this way and that trying to land a hit or break their guard, you hold down a finger on the screen to block and when you beat them down enough you rub the screen furiously back and forth til you fill up the gauge and then lay the smackdown on their candy ass and...it seems there is no rhyme or reason as to what your character will do. Some times I just slash away til their dead, sometimes I can't catch a break and they just smack me 3 times in a row and I'm dead. There's no way to skip the duels or control them any other way beyond furious slashing on the touchscreen. It ruins a perfectly good game. To make matters worse if you play the campaign every so often you'll get a random ass duel challenge from another player and you can't opt out of that shit you have to do it. Really kills my buzz when I'm just trying to get my damn conquest on.
On that note I tried Warriors Orochi 3 finally this weekend, I had forgotten I had bought it a month or so ago. I didn't play much because I was getting bombarded with texts and shit from people (yeah the one day I decide to play a game I become popular. most of the time people don't even know I exist.) I have to say I did not like the bit I played and I love the shit out of the series. I've played 1 &2 both on Xbox and PSP. The whole 3 character switching hacky slashy goodness was there but the very first map I had to fight a Hydra...WHAT? Yeah well I got my ass beat down. Then they added that whole camp/hub thing from Strikeforce. You know the place to go to talk to your officers and to upgrade your weapon and such. I don't know, I'm just not feeling it. I quit right after I got to camp, but I'm sure i'll try again at some point.

I tried to play Assassin's Creed 2 some more but I didn't make much progress, its just too much fun running around finding treasures and doing assassination side missions to bother with the main story yet. I skip the races and shit though cause I fucking suck at them.

After finishing Bioshock I went on over to Gears Judgment just to try and knock that outta the way but...I hate that game so damn much. I just can't get over my dislike of...well everything about it. I don't know, I don't think I'm gonna be able to finish it.

I've also been attempting to get in a bit better shape by playing Dance Central 3. Ok, make fun of Kinect and DC all you want but that shit is FUN. Seriously fun. Its also exhausting, I'm half dead by the time i finish my playlist and damn if I'm not sure as hell the next day. Guess its working.

I'm sure there's a ton of other shit I was gonna say but I'm tired and old and I forget things. If it comes to me I'll post it later.

Getting in the right mindset again

Ok so I know I've been doing the whole video thing but, I feel that that doesn't mean I should neglect the writing thing. honestly I dont even know if I'll stick with the video thing. So far I've been feeling a bit awkward doing it. But that might have to do with the fact I'm just babbling and don't actually plan anything out.
At the same time, that's just kinda how I am. I blurt out shit as it comes to mind, my thoughts go all over the place and sometimes its hard to follow where I jump to next but its just me.

I've been thinking about what to talk about, write about, how to be more interesting or funny and I realized that's never gonna work. When i started writing I was just myself, no one read it and I kept writing it. Not that my readership is big but its gone up from like my one friend who doesn't game beyond FB and Sims who would comment just cause she's my friend (Hi Michelle!)
I know that I should feel very good to know that the people who do read this have stuck with it through all my tantrums, rage quits and life altering dramas. Ya'll are always patient and you kindly return when I say something new. Thanks guys.

So this is going to probably be long and probably ramble on a bit. There might also be a quiz later, so you know (totally not making that up lol).

Throughout all my recent personal issues and dramas I made it a point to still find a few spare moments to just fire up a game and give it a 5 minute test drive at least. I think it helped me in some small way to get through stuff.
As a result I dabbled in a few games even if I didnt get far or even finish most of them. Last one I finished was Binary Domain and i did manage to review it too.

I've been focusing more on PC games lately just because its the one thing I neglect almost as badly as I do my PS3. and its also something I'm not very good at, the greatest words i can read on a Steam Game page is "Controller enabled"
I've also been focusing more on PC games because through my drama, and my birthday and more drama a lot of people have taken money out of their pockets to gift me games I wanted but couldnt afford at the moment and I want them to know I appreciate it and they aren't gifting me the equivalent of a scented candle I toss in a closet. I never buy or wishlist a game I don't want or don't intend to play. However, I have no idea when I'll get to things, though I've at least started all the games I've been gifted.

What I need currently is feedback. Let me know what it is you would like me to talk about more. I've been thinking that, given the name of this blog I'd like to get my kids more involved in it with me. I recently did a Video with my daughter as you know cause its like right under this post. It was kind of a mishmash because it was utterly spur of the moment but, I felt more comfortable with her there and it was fun to do. So maybe having them join in once in a while would be something that might get me back to the original intent of this blog. The fact that I'm a raving nutjob mother of 3 who games.

I've started a poll over on the OMG FB page just really a simple yes-no type deal with a request for comments, suggestions, whatever, so if you have FB head over there and give me your thoughts, if not, well you can always leave a comment here or reach me pretty much anywhere online. I swear i'm all over the damn place.

BUY ALL THE GAMES!!!

So...yeah...
From time to time someone usually comments on my game collection. On occasion they ask me why I own so many games? Do I ever intend to play them? how many of them do I actually play?
My knee jerk first reaction is to say "why the hell do you care?" but that would be rude.
So instead I calmly explain myself yet again....which is starting to piss me off, because, I don't owe explanations to anyone.
But, again, in an attempt to not be a raging bitch I go through my often repeated speech that goes like this:

I own this many games because I love games. I love to play them, I love to collect them, I love to read about them, I love to have options. 
I buy games that I am interested in, games I'm curious about, games I've heard good things about. I don't just randomly pick shit off the shelves while blindfolded.
I don't play as many of them as I would like to for numerous reasons, but for the most part I buy them with the intent to play them (whether I finish them is another story).




I fail to see why it matters to anyone how big my Steam list is (by the way, people need to realize that the number of games they see on my profile is not the number of games I own on steam, that number includes DLC for some odd reason). Is my buying a game on Steam preventing someone else from purchasing that game? Is the person asking me about the amount of games I own paying for my games?
I'm gonna go with "No" as an answer to both of those questions, and if that's the case then....WHY THE HELL DO THEY CARE????????????????

Yes, I buy a lot of games across many platforms. In the past I was also a bit of a shady character and that bolsters the number of games in my possession. My Xbox360 is currently out of space from all the XBL, XBIG and DLC I have purchased. My PS3 is also out of space from downloading some games recently after getting Playstation Plus.  Realistically speaking, I will NEVER get through my entire collection. Even though I am not the only person in my house that games (my children do as well) WE will never get through my entire collection. But, how does that affect anyone else?

GOG, Steam, Desura...I got 'em all and I've got plenty on all
This is but the tip of the game iceberg really

I pay my bills, I buy my groceries, I buy some games. I don't beg others for games, I'm reformed and so I don't pirate games anymore, I buy indie bundles to support both the small developers and charity and I give away games from said bundles that I have no interest in, or that I already owned from past purchases.

So tell me please, why do I need to justify or defend my collection? I understand a lot of people prefer to rent games or buy games and trade them in for other games, but that's not my thing. However I do not give them a world of shit for it because its not something I myself do.

I own a lot of games....more than many people, less than others. As long as I have money to spare I will continue to buy games. As time and inclination allows I will play some of these games. I will never play them all. But unless I'm taking your games or you're footing the bill....I'm not really interested in your opinion of me or my gaming habits. That may sound rude but, I'm just fed up with the situation.

Soul Calibur 4

So posted 2 characters a few days ago here.
And I threatened to post another so....here it is.

This was the best I could do with what I had to make Xena:

I know I know, she usually uses a Chakram, but I felt Tira's Hoop
was too big so I went with a sword instead.

And just because I can....

This is my preferred Character, Kitty Meowmeow:

Yes, she is holding Shishkebab

She uses Cervantes' fighting style and uses Shishkebab. My husband HATES her so much because I consistently kick his ass with her, lol

Something Random

While looking for a pic  on photobucket I stumbled on some old character creation pics i had taken when I first got Soul Calibur 4 and I thought I'd post them

So this was my attempt at Deadpool (don't laugh! I tried!)

DeadPool

The second one is slightly more obscure. If you've ever heard of or read the book Wicked or Seen the Musical then you'll know who it is. for those who haven't heard of Wicked. Its a back story about the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz. In the book her name is Elphaba and she isn't wicked at all. Her nickname was Elphie, and this was my attempt at making her into a Soul Calibur Character

Elphaba AKA the Wicked Witch of the West

I made many other characters including a pretty good Xena but I never got around to taking a pic of her. I might do that and add her in here too if you guys wanna see her.

Just felt like showing some of my collection.

First my most recent addition:

Catherine Love is Over edition.

my not so impressive 32in. With my slim PS2 AND elite Xbox360 with my DeathSmiles face plate I got recently

MY Xbox360 games with a few PS1 games thrown in and half of my PS2 games

The Rest of my PS2 games

My 46in with my second PS2, Second Xbox360, PS3 and Wii. On the sides are my Gamecube, Wii and PS3 games among other things

After that we enter retro land!

My SDTV with a Colecovision, Atari 2600, Sega Master System, NES & Sega Saturn.behind a lot of junk there is my Gamecbue, N64, PS1 and various Plug and Play games. To the right are my old school game cartridges and some pc games.

And finally, some bad, blurry pics of my action figure collection. I really need better pics....and more space lol.

My pride and joy is my Marcus Statue

the room I keep my Pc, action figures and old school consoles in  doubles as my art studio so its a total disaster in there.

And finally my  pretty glowy blue PC. its not GREAT but it gets the job done . I love it.

Of course this doesn't include all my Steam, Gog, DS, PSP, GB, GBA and emulated games. Or our GB, 2GBA, and 5NDS Lites. Listing all that would take forever!We also have an assortment of plug and play games as well and kiddie consoles like the Vsmile and Vflash.
Obviously gaming is an integral part of my life and my family's life.

So this is just a general idea of my gaming junk :P
if I won the Lotto, I'd probably pay off all my bills and then go on a game spree. lol

This weekend...ZOMBIES!!!!

I like to do random stuff with the kids sometimes and this week was one of those times.
A while back we bought my son a little SWAT team set. Gun, vest, helmet etc. he loved that thing, but yesterday he comes to me sadly clutching his vest and telling me that somehow it ripped. He looked so sad about it and suddenly inspiration struck. I suggested that we tear it up a bit more, add some paint and zombify him. He instantly lit up, but his sisters had overheard and they wanted in on the action too.
So today, i slashed fabric, used red, yellow and green pain to paint blood and rot and bile and my husband put make-up on them and glue to make peeling skin.
Then we took pictures.

There was no real rhyme or reason. Halloween is long gone, but you don't really need an occasion to dress as a zombie.

Eventually they got me

It seemed hopeless

Then I was able to grab the now zombified cop's gun. Sadly it was futile, i'd already been bit.

Quickie

I apologize for the lack of anything interesting or even amusing in this post now, before I even begin, so that should you read it all, you can't claim I didnt warn you it was a big crapfest lol.
I could give many excuses and reasons why, but I'll keep it simple. I have had a bad week, I'm extremely exhausted and my G.A.D. is off the chain this week.

I was updating my apps on my phone last night and was reminded of that commercial about how people use smart phones to do dumb things...That is SOOOO me.

My most used apps:

Archipelago, a game consisting of a few circles that are Islands and the whole goal is to get your planes to control the islands and get rid of all the enemy planes....so stupid...yet, its my go to game during my smoke breaks

Sudoku, because I am addicted to that stupid game.

Amazon Cloud player, so I can jam to Miracle of Sound on the go

Zombie Booth, because if the zombie apocalpyse comes, I want to know I'll make a cute zombie.

Amazon App store cause i'm a sucker for the free app of the day

Pocket Frogs, something about catching and breeding multicolored frogs just makes me zone out for long periods of time

Reversi, in my day it was called Othello and I've always loved it.

some of the apps I have because I'm just a dork and love useless things:

Princess Bride, Portal and Pinky and the brain Soundboards

Finger Slayer, its safer than using a real guillotine

Do not press, because it was hilarious leaving my phone on to that and hiding and waiting to see which one of my kids pressed the button first.

Nyan Cat....yeah...
and my most useless app of all?

LIGHTSABER, because I'm just that goofy, plus, people would think me crazy if I walked around with a Lightsaber that lights up and makes noises.

There are tons more, like...phone running out of space because I have too many damn apps more, but, these are my main ones...

I do use a couple of legit, serious apps....Ledgerist, Facebook, Flashlight and Text Plus, plus the internet but aside from that, its all frivolous shit.

I mean, I rarely go anywhere, I have no job and I have no friends, why do I need a smart phone for? I mean aside from all the dumb bullshitty apps out there to download?

Quickie

So...last night I was playing Gears 3 on Hardcore with my 7yr old son and my husband. we quit after failing the Anvil Gate mission too many times...you know, when half of you stay on the wall and the other half go out in the truck...
What does it say that the reason we quit was because my husband kept getting killed during the mission..not my 7yr old.
I know who I want on my side in a Vs. match lol


Also, I'm delaying my PS list til tomorrow, I'm a little tired today, plus, I wanna play the new Dungeon Siege DLC so I can hate on Lucas Montbarron some more.

Debating the DLC for Deus Ex..1200 pts..ouch....

Oh, started Alan Wake last night....I am so upset at how much I disliked it.
I read the novel before I bought it, I bought the Collector's edition and read all of it, got the Collector's edition guide with the added companion book ,read all that as well and loved it all.
Finally started the game and noticed a few things that totally killed it for me....

1. Alan Wake is a Douche...now, I already knew this from the book but, I guess, it was palpable because I wasn't straight up hearing him talk...Game starts..I wanna punch him in the head.

2. that lame healthbar-dot that tells you here to go thing..it just isnt working for me. I know some people love that whole minimalistic hud thing. F-that. While in real life I have an excellent sense of direction (no really, take me somewhere once and I can find it again on my own even 10yrs later) In games I become directionally impaired. I LIKE having a mini-map, an actual map, a breadcrumb trail, something besides a dot that rotates with me and gives me vertigo.

3. This is actually the BIG one...I feel like everyone is talking AT me, not TO me. Maybe its because they just start  rambling on without me doing anything except being within 20 ft from them. Maybe its because I really don't give a crap what they are saying....either way, I don't like it.

I WANT to like this game but...damn...its not making it easy.


So...not as "quick" as I expected this to be.
*about the title of this post....
I suck at titles and sometimes I have very little to say and just wanna say it without  spending more time thinking of a witty name, so..quick thoughts will all be "quickie's" it sounds cheap and dirty...I like cheap and dirty ;)

Hellos

I've given it much though, and I've gotten much  lecturing from friends and family :)
and I will be continuing my blog.
Thanks to all you guys that do come and read my rants :)
I'm still working on those Game lists and I've got a few actual game related thoughts I'm rattling round my head to maybe write about soon.

So..I'll be back soon. I'm off to play MvsC3...I have a bizarre crush on Wesker...so dreamy in his evil twisted way.

This has not a Damn thing to do with gaming

Who has 2 thumbs, is adorably evil, will kill me if I stop blogging, wants to steal my closet and got massively photo bombed by Luke?

THIS GIRL!!

aka Ghanima, my spunky sidekick

No follow up

I've decided not to bother continuing my unfinished game list posts. They are incredibly long lists and really, no one really cares about what I have played or not.

I enjoy writing this blog. I know that very few people actually read it, and i'm ok with that. After all a game obsessed stay at home mom isn't all that interesting. Not to mention that this blog was started for me to rant and rave whenever I chose.

I let this blog stagnate for month after month until recently. Many things factored into that.

Lately I've been trying to write on a more regular basis but sometimes, I'm not sure why I do it.  I mean, gaming blogs are a dime a dozen, but good ones are rare. This is not a good one. It's just...me...being me. Talking about myself, my family, my life.

So, I'm giving serious thought to just, closing up shop so to speak.
I don't know, maybe I'm just moody.

My best imitation of a Pepto Bismol Bottle

Once upon a time I started doing Bellydance workouts apparently in those days I was also color blind. The workouts are long gone, but the fugly pink outfit remains. Here it is in all its pastel glory at my daughter's birthday party this past weekend.
Its ok, laugh...I mean..wow, that's HELLA PINK!
Lovely how my once red-now faded to hot pink on top, orange at the bottom hair matched so well.

So...votes on whether I should burn the pink monstrosity?

SUCCESS!!!

and Allergies.

No, they have nothing to do with each other, I just wanted to have an excuse to post pics of Luke.

Isnt he cute? He's a Border collie, Australian Shepherd mix. He's also a hyper little meatball. One if his eyes is totally awesome, its half brown, half blue.

This weekend he woke me up by leaping onto the bed and landing right on me...35 lbs of fuzzy slobbery dog plopped down on my chest and stomach...OWWW.

Our puppy has been sneezing a lot and his eyes are red, so we took him to the vet who told us he has allergies...
Oh the irony...He's a dog with Hay fever who comes from 2 breeds of outdoor dogs...And while he suffers with his allergies, I suffer my allergies to him AND the great outdoors.We can be drowsy on Allergy pills together :p

So now that I've shown off our squishy fluffy doggie I shall move on to something relevant to at least part of this blog's name. (the GAMES part)

So 3 years ago, I bought a game called Lost Odyssey, you might have heard of it. Its an RP for the 360 by Mistwalker.Without spoilers its basically the main character's (kaim) search for his memories. He's immortal and has amnesia..wow those are some original ideas there huh? lol
Throughout the game your party will meet and fight along with other immortals and humans.
Kaim has the personality of a bag of doorknobs, but his dreams, which are told in text form with music and sound effects for ambiance are incredibly detailed, and beautifully written. They are also wrist-slittingly depressing and WILL make you cry.
One of the characters you meet early on is Jansen, a human, a mage, a spy and a smart ass. He's also the best thing to happen to that game. Whether you find him annoying or you love him, he add some much needed levity to the story.
So I set out on my journey with Surly Kaim, assclown Jansen and another incredibly annoying and stupid immortal pirate chick named Seth.
We were doing well, I was having fun admiring the scenery, laughing at Jansen's comments, fighting random battles...no worries.
Then, I came upon this one battle...this battle with a giant blue worm thing and little blue bugs. Bugs and a worm, how hard can that be?
Last time my husband said "this seems straighforward enough, how hard can it be" while playinga game, we got our asses handed to us.
It was true then and it was true for Lost Odyssey.

That stupid worm sat there doing nothing, while his little bugs attacked. I tried wailing on him...but he didnt die, what he did was suck up the little bugs' magic every turn until his meter was full and then he hit me with a paralyzing beam that destroyed my party.
So then, I tried again and went for the little bugs. Finally killed them all, but not only had the worm gotten enough magic out of them before they died to attack, he summoned more of them mid battle.
As you can probably guess, my party ate dirt.
Third times a charm....
This time, I did the one thing you NEVER want to do in an RPG...have each party member attack a different enemy. Unless you are fighting pushovers that die in one hit, its stupid to divide your party's attacks because while they will weaken multiple enemies, they dont take any of them out, and even weak the enemy can hit you back and kick your ass.
But I was desperate. I chose 2 bugs and the third person went for the worm. I went down even faster this time.
I kept trying, mixing up those approaches and getting my ass handed to me, til about the 12th try....
The bugs were dead, my party was barely hanging on and FINALLY the Bogimoray (that's the worm's name) fell down dead. I was about to start jumping on my bed like a 5 yr old, cheering my victory when another worm popped out of nowhere with his squad of bugs and the fight was on again.
With my party out of magic, and almost out of health it took about 30 seconds to destroy us. Dejected I turned off the Xbox, put the game in its case and went off on a rant to whoever would listen about that damn blue worm that fucked me over.
When I calmed down I went and read the walkthrough on Gamefaqs and it seems that with my last encounter I had the right idea but I took it too far.
You want to kill some ofthe bugs, til you are down to 2 or 3. then beatdown the worm, as he summons more bugs, you keep this strategy up. Eventually, He'll bite it.
I thought about going back and giving it a try, but I was too disgusted with my constant deaths at the hands of Shai-Hulud's distant blue cousin that I didnt bother trying again.

Time passed, I moved on to other games but, Jansen had stuck with me. (actually I developed a bit of a crush on the pixelated comedian. and plastered him as wallpaper for my psp, my pc and laptop).
I thought about trying again but I had other games and other things to do...so finally i broke down and totally cheated. I went to Youtube and watched the "jansen-centric" cutscenes.
I laughed, I cried and I wished I could get past that damn worm and get to those places myself.
Usually I hate spoilers, turns me off a game, but not Lost Odyssey. Seeing  the ending made me want to experience it for myself.

As you know, lately I've been ALL about the Gears. I've played online with friends (Hi guys! *wave* and strangers (yes, Gears 3 got me over my fear of online. its just too fun to not play with others). I've played alone, and with my husband and kids. We've done splitscreen co-op, we've done system link. Its ALL gears  ALL the time. And while I will be playing Gears for a while to go (bought the season pass.. MATAKI!!!!!) I need some non-Gears time, cause I'm really starting to develop an unnatural crush on Baird.

Out of all the games I own and could have picked, I pulled out Lost Odyssey last night. Everyone in my house seemed a bit lost and confused over my choice.

A few minutes after firing it up, Both blue worms and their minions were dead and my whole party was alive and well and I thought to myself...why the hell couldnt I do this before?
One theory, After all the games i've played between my first try at Lost Odyssey and now, I've rethought out my strategies in turn-based combat. I made sure to utilize each characters special abilities, and appropriate roles in order to greatly increase my odds of winning.
Another theory, I came into the game calm and not frustrated and dejected from multiple losses.

The non-bullshit truth..I got lucky. First try, followed the recommended approach and got lucky. So now, I FINALLY get to move on and enjoy the rest of the game.

Its been 3 years and the game looks just as beautiful as it did then. The graphics are lovely and the colors refreshing. It can stand by newer games without shame, actually its prettier than MANY games i've played in recent memory. The gameplay is pretty straight up traditional turn-based and it works well.
Its gonna take me a while to get through it since its 4 disks long but, considering I've seen how it ends...its totally worth the time.

Besides how can you resist a game that did a promo video to the music of Jefferson Airplane? White Rabbit is AWESOME!

Get More: GameTrailers.com, Lost Odyssey - Extended TV Spot, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Short and sweet--never the case.

Ever notice that whenever I say I'm gonna be brief I end up writing an essay? Why is that? I usually set out with some sort of point to make, but I'm like a 3 year old, shiny things distract me. Even with my insanely verbose posts I usually notice after the fact things that I've forgotten to say that I had planned to-*ooh pretty butterfly*
...
...
Where was I?
Right, things i forget to say. What did I forget this time? Not much really, I mean I could talk more about Deus Ex, gameplay, dialogue, story, whatever, but, no, can't say I had anything planned that I didnt cover. I just feel chatty, that's all.

Life is somewhat quiet now with the kids back at school and I can focus on my stuff for a change, well somewhat. First week of school is always a little hectic.

my *tentative* plan is to play more games, attempt to go back to my drawing and painting a bit and write more often. But how many times have I made that plan..The best laid plans...and all that rot.

So, lets just say that I'll be randomly popping in here and randomly writing random things.

Since i'm here, what the hell, I might as well write about what this blog was originally named for. Being a mom gamer and trying to raise a gaming family.

Over the summer I've bought many games, Lord I dont think I could list them all if I tried. Those damn Steam sales get me every time. I've expanded my tiny PS3 collection a bit as well. I think I'm at about 20 PS3 games or so.
I've probably mentioned my console collection before but who knows where in this unorganized mess of a blog that info is, so I'll run through the console collection really quick here.

So I'll try to put them in age order as best as I can recall.

Atari 2600
(1)Colecovision
NES
Sega MasterSystem
Sega Genesis
N64
Playstation 1
Gamecube
Playstation 2 (x2 one slim, one original)
Xbox360 (x2)
Playstation 3
Wii

and also a healthy amount of handhelds

Gamboy (can't seem to recall where it is)
Gameboy color (still works but I lost the battery cover)
GBA (x2)
DSLite (x6, 2 of them broken and I've never gotten around to fixing them)
PSP (my pride and joy a GOW edition)

And of course my PC and Droid phone

I don't include the kiddie consoles because those are pretty much nothing but dust gatherers now that my kids are older.

Long ago I bought a Sega Dreamcast at launch but someone sold it. My goal is to buy a Dreamcast and an original Xbox. Why? just because, and there are some games I'd like to play on both.

As far as owning games, I own a decent amount for each of the above mentioned consoles and if you include emulator roms, my game collection is probably somewhere above the 5k mark.

This might sound "braggy" but that wasnt my  intent, my point is to emphasis the importance of gaming in my life and my family's.
We have...options, many many options. something for everyone. As my kids get a little older, their skills and taste both keep evolving and its interesting to watch them come into their own in gaming.

My oldest daughter, (2)Ghanima1999 (To protect the innocent I refer to them by their gamertags) started her gaming life with a (3)V-smile, It was a good little starter console, lots of game choices, and they were cute, fun and educational. When a handheld V-smile was released, we purchased one as well, sadly it did not live long. Electronics and juice dont mix.
As she got older it was passed down to her sister and then her little brother but by then, it was about to give up the ghost so we upgraded to the (4)V-Flash for her, it was supposed to be the "middle child of sorts. It was designed for kids a little older than the V-smile but not ready for a "big" console. For her siblings we purchased a (5)V-motion, an even kiddier than the Wii motion controlled console. Neither of these lasted long, She had discovered the joys of the DS, PSP and Xbox360.
She started off with the requisite "girly" games, the Imagine series, Hannah Montana, the usual fluff. But gradually she started to branch out to games Like Soul Calibur and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and the like.
She's 12 now, in that nightmare tween stage (buts thats a whole 'nuther game) and her game choices have grown with her. Recently we started a Co-op game of Sacred 2 and as she likes to rub in my face, she has more achievements than me in Fallout 3. She leans towards WRPGs and shooters these days.

Her sister, Waterfalls2001, is a more complex gaming animal to describe. After running the kiddie console gauntlet she too graduated to the "big" consoles. At the start she was big on playing DS games, mostly games based on animals, not so much the Nintendogs type but more the Animal Genius games (animal genius is a trivia game of sorts, you play minigames and answer questions about animals to unlock new animals and locations). Her second main game type were platformers, Mario, Donkey Kong and such. Being the tomboy type I fully expected her to soon become as big a gamer as me, but I was wrong. One day, she just stopped playing. She'd occasionally bring out the DS and play a little Pokemon and such but she never touched any other console and never expressed much of an interest in gaming.
Curious as to why she suddenly just quit gaming, I asked her one day. before I share my findings, I want to say that growing up an only child I can't say I understand sibling rivalry all that well. Her main reason for not playing games was her sister. Both my girls are extremely competitive, especially with each other and Ghani being the older one, she usually has the upper hand in games as far as skills and hand-eye coordination. This wouldnt be a big deal if she weren't a hyper-critical sore winner. With her little sister's hot temper and impatience, their game playing session always became a civil war.
Rather than deal with her sister's taunts and ridicule and never being that into games to begin with, she just stopped playing.
She's 10yrs old now and she's starting to experiment with different game genres to see what suits her. Always the animal games but also a lot of music and action games. She enjoyed playing Vanquish quite a bit and she plays Audiosurf and Toki tori every so often among others.
These days she's tentatively approached gaming again. Just like her sister I have begun co-op game of Sacred 2 with her and she plays LBP, Modnation Racers and Mortal Kombat every so often. She's rediscovering gaming and finding that, as long as she isnt playing with Ghani, she likes it.

My son, He's a typical boy, loves cars and racing games. Flatout, Burnout, Need for Speed, Blur, that's his bread and butter. He's also the only person in this house who seems to be able to play through a Lego game.
Being only 7 he's just now branching out to more complex games, such as Fallout 3 and New Vegas (he blew up Megaton and sided with Caesar...evil little monkey lol).
I wont go through it again,since I have talked about it many times  but Scribblenauts and Super Scribblenauts are his staple games. Scribblenauts helped him improve his spelling and reading immensely (if you'd like to read about Scribblenauts and Sapito2004 just hit up the Scribblenauts tag on the side yonder -->) and they've kept him out of my hair for many hours (kidding, he's a good kid).
Games like Fallout are still a bit challenging for him due to the amount of reading and to some degree gaming skills needed to get through much of the game. I think he picked up playing "older" games not only because he loves games but because he didnt want to be left behind by his sisters. He's getting pretty good though he can't beat me at Mortal Kombat, hehe.

One thing all my children share is a love of music. To that end we play many many music games. Mostly Lips and Singstar (I think I own like 6 or 7 Singstar games) but the family has been known to come together and rock out a bit with Guitar Hero, Band Hero and Rockband. We make my husband play drums because we all suck at them, lol.
Recently, ok this weekend, DJ Hero 2 was on sale for $20 and I asked my husband if he'd pick it up for me since he was out. He didnt understand why I would want the game but, he got it anyway. When he brought it home no one seemed remotely interested in unboxing the damn thing, let alone play it. But, I set it up and gave Sapito first crack sat it. As soon as he saw his avatar spinning he loved it, but he was dead set on playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance and so he didnt spin much. Everyone took their turns and no one wanted to stop. I discovered I'm an idiot savant of DJ Hero, no one has been able to beat my score on Bad Romance, though my husband is making it his personal mission.

My kids, like my husband know that gaming is my hobby and my passion and they take it in stride. The kids tend to tease me when a week or two go by and I haven't bought another game to add to the collection. We game together,we game solo and I encourage them to try out new games often. We talk a lot about games and gaming news. I keep them up to date on what's coming out and when etc. We play games and we discuss them .As I've said in the past, I'm pretty laid back about what games they play. I take the same approach to gaming as I do anything else related to my kids. I believe that knowing your kids, and encouraging dialogue ranks a lot higher than a games ESRB rating. Yes, I let my kids play Mature games and we talk about them. I know many would disagree with me but, that's my own personal stand on kids and M rated games, at least my stand on my kids and M rated games.

While my kids take my gaming in stride, to them I'm "mom", not "gamer mom". However, to their friends I'm the "gamer mom" and Its something that my kids are proud of (after all, you dont want your parents to be embarassing dorks, right?) but at the same time, its something that sometimes causes, not so much drama, as much as a little annoyance and sometimes embarassment. One such moment occured with Ghani's best friend. upon getting to know me, she would hang out with me more than Ghani and when her mom came to get her she asked her mom why she couldnt be as cool as Ghani's mom, because Ghani's mom games and hangs out with them.
Being a parent and a gamer also leads to a lot of other parents looking down at me, or being critical of how I'm raising my children. The stigma attached to video games is definitely a problem. Some people can't reconcile that I can be both a gamer and a good parent. But luckily being a basement dwelling, Dorito and Coke snacking gamer I dont have much interaction with other parents and that suits me and my family just fine.


(1)for those that don't remember this console or have never heard of it,this is what it looks like:

(2)Ghanima was a name I used often on gaming sites long long ago, I have since hen switched to Sihaya. My daughter has somehow inherited the name as she follows in my footsteps. Its fitting, after all Sihaya was Ghanima's mother in the Dune series.

(3)V-smile:

(4)V-Flash:

(5)V-Motion:

Just a little test

Just testing out this whole blogging from my phone thing so, here's a pic of my toys to test it out.
My studio is a bit of a mess as usual, I apologize. However its bound to get even worse soon, since I'm planning on taking up painting again.