Who blogs here:
Erik spends his night and weekends saving worlds, slaying beasts and organizing mismatch shapes into straight lines. While First-person shooters (FPS),
survival horror and platformers are some of his favorite, there are no genre of game he won't play. From PC to PSP, Xbox to Wii. Erik is just as passionate
with playing games as he is talking about them.
J.R. is the sorta-completionist gamer. He almost always completes the main story arc in all games he plays, but seldom plays the "gamer's game" to complete everything. He'll never get all 120 stars or fight Emerald Weapon, but he will save the day. His favorite genres are RPG, Action/Adventure, Platformer, and MMO. He doesn't like fighting games and is rather picky about FPSs.
Ted has been hooked on gaming since the birth of the Atari 2600, when high fantasy adventure consisted of maneuvering a colored square through a castle maze while dodging pesky dragons that looked like 2D seahorses with beaks and wacky bats that took great pleasure in stealing your keys. To this day, while he enjoys platformers, first-person shooters and puzzlers, he is most passionate about RPGs and any other games which weave great stories into the overall experience.
Amethyst, a gamer that giggles at calling herself a gamer because she fits none of the glamorous stereotypes of female gamers, has been gaming since her father brought home the sparkly new Nintendo Entertainment System back in '89. Up until then she had dabbled with the Atari at a cousin's, but it was Super Mario Brothers, Duck Hunt and pounding with her hands on the Power Pad in World Class Track Meet that sealed her fate. Despite a three year stint that she doesn't talk about, she has been playing video games and other nerdly activities with enthusiasm. She enjoys puzzlers, RPGs, MMORPGs, certain shooters/fighters, platformers, magic carpet rides and um, mechanical pencil sharpeners. She hates, despite a couple of exceptions, racing games and sports games. Amethyst is married to Erik and is friends with J.R. and Ted.
I've always said that football needs more orcs.
chillzilla
| 6/26/2008 7:19 am |
Game On
It could be debated that my frequent childhood play time on the
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was higher on the "total loser"
scale then my obsession with Dungeons and
Dragons (D&D) or Warhammer 40K
(40K). At least with D&D I was hanging out with
other nerds and with 40K I was doing something that resembled
"crafting". It was clear when I played the NES that I
was being non-productive and alone. Although, it
really doesn't matter which was higher on the fictional scale
because the shear fact I did all three AND collected comics doomed
me of any chance of being "cool".
Presently, comics have raked in billions in the box office and
gaming is in the mainstream. I don't feel I have to
hide my "geeky" nature as I did back then. Although, I
am 31 which could mean it is still nerdy to enjoy comics and
gaming, but I've just stopped caring what Jessica Spencer might
think of me. (Yeah! I said that! See,
Jessica! Your hold on me is over!)
Because D&D and 40K haven't quite made the jump as well as the
others, I always take notice when a D&D or Warhammer related
game is being released. Despite the original products
being great fun, the jump to digital entertainment hasn't always
been successful. For every Neverwinter Nights there is
Dungeon and Dragon Heroes. For every Dawn of War
there is a
Fire Warrior. These games have been hit or miss when it comes
to quality. (I can't explain how hard it is to avoid mentioning a
failed saving throw.)
Blood Bowl is a board game by the creators of Warhammer and
Warhammer 40K. The game is a turn-based version of
American football, but adds in deaths, crowd riots and
orcs. This is fantasy football with a heavy emphasis
on the word, "fantasy." It should come as no surprise
that I love the game. It probably won't shock anyone
either that I have created my own miniature football field and
traveled up north to join in a Blood Bowl competition (My team lost
every game they played except for the final game where it was orcs
vs orcs.) I was very excited to hear of the upcoming Blood Bowl game for
the Xbox 360. While I do enjoy the board game, I must
admit that it is a hassle to set-up, find all my rulebooks and
locate my current team roster. I completely support and enjoy
free online Blood Bowl, but I'm
looking forward to watching an animated Black Orc Blocker (think
defense only bigger and more green).
While Cyanide (the
game's developer) has been generous with their amount of screenshots,
Destructoid linked me to the game's first
trailer. The trailer doesn't show much in the way
of gameplay, but if it looks good and plays like its physical
counterpart then what is not to love.
blog entry tag reference
go to Game On
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