Wii Fit

When Wii Fit was first released I was in my third trimester and hoped that it would be a great way to get into shape after having my baby. As you probably know, Wii Fit is a fitness game that introduced the Wii Balance Board. Wii Fit is a well rounded fitness aid that utilizes yoga, strength training, aerobics, and balance games. Last winter I finally felt ready, physically and financially, to give Wii Fit a try and I found it both fun and beneficial with only minor disappointments.

When you start Wii Fit you will meet the Wii Balance Board character that walks you through the game. When you begin you will be asked to create a profile and will select your Mii, height, and age. You will also get to try some balance games so that your weight and balance can be assessed and your Wii Fit Age and BMI can be determined. Part of creating your profile is setting a goal for yourself. It is important to be realistic when setting your goal. Seeing progress towards a goal will help you stay motivated, but if there is no way you can reach the goal you might be more likely to give up. You may also want to add the Wii Fit Channel so that you can check your weight/BMI at anytime without actually having to insert the disc.

The aerobics section of Wii fit is an entertaining way to get moving. When you start you only have a few options, but you have the ability to unlock more the more you play. I personally love the hula hoop games. The premise of this mini game is fairly simple. Swing your hips as fast as you can to keep the hoops going, but you occasionally have to lean to one side or the other in order to catch new hoops. While this game is really fun to play, it is even more fun to watch someone else who is really bad at it! Ok. Once you are done making fun of your loved ones, give the other mini games a try. The more you play the more you unlock. The good thing is that as you unlock more games you get more options that effect difficulty of your workout.

Along with your weight the Wii Fit uses your balance to help determine you Wii Fit Age. If you need some help with your balance there are plenty of balance games to help you out. You may find that the balance game section seems the most game-like out of all the sections. Ski jump is by far my favorite! In order to play this game you want to crouch down and lean forward in order to pick up speed while you head down the slop. Towards the end you pop up (don't jump!), stand straight, but lean forward. If skiing isn't your thing there are other games such as a soccer based game, table tilt, and several others to play.

The yoga portion contains 15 different yoga poses and the trainer will give you instructions on proper form. Since an important aspect of yoga is breathing there is also an indicator that tells you when to breathe in and out. There is also corresponding sounds to help you remember to breathe when you are unable to see the screen. While yoga is beneficial to muscle strength you still might want to check out the strength training section to really give them a workout. Since the balance board can not check your form (this is true with yoga as well) it is important to self check to make sure your form is correct. If you can not see the screen there are verbal clues to help you out. The more you work the more exercises, as well as reps, you will unlock.

I think what is obvious is that what you get out of Wii Fit is entirely dependent on what you put into it. You have to use it in order for it to work. It is also worth noting that Wii Fit is probably not going to have you ready to run a marathon, but it will get you up and moving. While I think that Wii Fit is more than worth while I do have a couple of issues with it. One is that I really lost a lot of motivation in the beginning before I unlocked the more reps and longer time options. I also found it fairly annoying that you can not chain exercises into workouts. In other words, you can't set up an actual workout program where when you finish one exercise it automatically goes to another. So in the beginning, before you unlock more options, it really doesn't feel like that much of a workout if you have to stop and pick another option from the menu every minute or so. But like I said, Wii Fit will probably not get you into amazing shape, but you will burn calories and with a healthy diet it can help you get into shape.

Hexic HD

The other night I accidentally came across an Xbox 360 arcade game that I did not even know I had. Luckily for me, I was in the mood to try something new! I have always enjoyed puzzle type games and I believe this game is an excellent addition to the genre.

In Hexic HD you have to rotate trios of hexagons in order to create clusters of the same color. While this is a simple idea the game is actually more complicated than that. In order to win the game you have to create a cluster of black pearls. I have to be honest with you here. I have spent hours playing this game over the course of several days and I have yet to even create one black pearl let alone three in order to make a cluster. In order to create a pearl you have to do several things. First you have to create a "flower" by surrounding a hexagon with six of another color. When you do that you get a special silver star that has the ability to move surrounding hexagons in a new way. Once you get six of these silver stars you have to use them to create another flower. A black pearl will be created in the center of that flower. Once you get three pearls and create a cluster you will win the game. While you are trying to do this you have to watch out for bombs. If you do not clear the bombs within a certain number of turns your game is over. The biggest problem with this is that at times it is hard to tell what color the bombs are!

Ummm….seriously? Has anyone actually beaten this game? I have gotten close to creating one pearl, but then something happens and my silver stars cluster and disappear. So, when I play my goal is not really to win. On the main menu there is an option to view the leaderboards. You can compare your high score with your friends and see your overall ranking. If I focus on winning the game I might just go insane! So, I think I will stick to getting points and take the win if it falls in my lap.

Who Is He To Tell Me That I Am Not A Gamer?!

Big Download recently did an interview with Shia LaBeouf. Turns out the star of the Transformer movies is also a big time gamer! It also turns out that, according to Mr. LaBeouf, people that own a Wii are not real gamers! Here is what I have to say about that...who the hell is he to tell millions of people that are not "gamers"?!

Maybe we need to define gamer. According to Marriam-Webster a gamer is, "a person who plays games ; especially : a person who regularly plays computer or video games." So, what does that mean? It means that you are a gamer, as long as you play on a regular basis, no matter whether you play Halo, Madden, God of War, Zuma, Guild Wars, Wii Sports, or anything else!

Gamers come in all kinds. It is my opinion that being at the top of a leader board does not make you a gamer. I think that being a gamer means that you have a passion for games no matter what kind you play or how you play them. I have been playing games for as long as this judgmental jerk has even been alive! I am enough of a gamer that I appreciate all games and all consoles even if I have no iterest in actually playing it! So, Megan Fox, while Shia is off eating glass I am sure there are millions of "real" men who are curtious enough to not be rude pigs.

My New Addiction

I have to make a confession to you all. I am an addict. Drugs? No. Alcohol? No. Smoking? No. Achievements? Yes! I know my Xbox Live gamerscore is nothing to brag about, but I am quickly becoming obsessed with it.

The truth is that I am a very competitive person. So, it would seem that xbox live would be the place for me, but that is not the way my competitiveness is manifesting. It seems to be taking the passive route. Now, like I said, my gamerscore is nothing to brag about. What this means for me is that, for the time being, I am obsessed with kicking my boyfriend's gamerscore when it is down!

One of the sad side effects my new addiction has caused is that I am now less likely to play my PC and Wii games. I still love my Wii, but at the end of the day I am the only one who knows what I have accomplished in my game. When it comes to PC games I can still work towards titles in Guild Wars, but that is time consuming and difficult.

What it all comes down to is that I love unlocking achievements. Not only do I get to compare my achievements to other gamers, but I have some very clear cut goals in my games. Some of these goals have little to do with winning the game, but are just fun or a difficult mission that could possibly go unnoticed otherwise. The best part, in my opinion, is that there are achievements for all the games whether they are first person shooters or child/family games. Anyone can play and feel a sense of accomplishment and recognition.

Mario Party 8

Mario Party 8 is one of those games that I thought I would try out because it looked like it would be an interesting break from playing more in depth games like Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It is both simple to understand and play, making it an interesting alternative when looking for something casual. Mario Party is definitely a game that just about anyone can play and therefore is great for families.


Mario Party 8 is a multiplayer game that also involves lots of mini-games. I personally really liked the board game aspect. There are a few different boards to choose from giving the player some variety. While your character is running around the board you have the option to purchase candy that gives different bonuses and benefits. You have to be carefull when purchasing candy however, if you land on a star you will need to have enough coins in order to purchase it and stars win the game. Yes, the game is fairly silly, but you really can't be serious all the time, right?


While I prefer the board game aspect the mini games is what Mario Party is really about. Now, don't get me wrong, it is not that I don't like mini-games I just didn't really like them in this game. My main complaint is that I do not feel they really made this game for the Wii. Yes, they do use the Wii Remote for movement, but it really seems that they could have done more with it. I also felt that, for the most part, I did not win (or lose) these mini games based on skill, but rather chance. It did not seem to me that the game was all that responsive to my movements which made it very frustrating, even though I kept winning.

While I do like the game over all, I do have few issues with it. First is that the graphics could have been a lot better. Of course the Nintendo Wii does not have the graphics capabilities of the PS3 or Xbox360, but this seemed low even for the Wii. Once I add in the fact that I did not really feel that my actions made that much of a difference in the game it really would seem that I disliked it. The truth is that I felt the game was good for what it was. It does not require a lot of depth or the precision of Wii Motion Plus, although that would be a nice future addition, to serve the purpose of the game. Mario Party 8 for Wii is a casual game that is great for the family and I think the ability to play with friends or family is what makes this game fun to play.

You can purchase Mario Party from our store.

Where It All Began, Guild Wars: Prophecies

In a recent blog post I talked about the fourth anniversary of the Guild Wars series and it really got me thinking about my experiences while playing the game. When I first bought Guild Wars I had no idea what to expect and I certainly I had no idea that I would still be playing it four years later. The map is not only large, but also diverse giving little monotony. Now known as Guild Wars Prophecies, this game is not only a great introduction to the Guild Wars series, but it is also a wonderful stand alone game.


Guild Wars Prophecies is the first installment in the Guild Wars series and is still a great place to start for new GW players. After creating your character you find yourself in a beautiful area called Ascalon City. In this one town alone there are eleven quests available. When you leave Ascalon City you will find yourself in the Ascalon Region which has a total of five towns/outposts and six explorable areas! While this portion of the game is a tutorial, there is a lot that can be done, however, most of this area can be skipped if you so choose. While it is possible to quickly move on I do not recommend it if it is your first time playing GW. The Ascalon region is a beautiful place and unlike the rest of the GW map you can not come back to the area once you leave. The many quests that are available give the player more than enough to do in order to keep them interested. It also gives new players a chance to try out all the professions (as secondary and not primary) that are available. If you are a vetern GW player you might want to give this area of the game another look if it has been awhile. You might just find a new appreciation for this beautiful region.


After completing the tutorial you will find that the Ascalon region is a very different place. An event called "the searing" has devastated the land. The good news, however, is Post-Searing Ascalon is the first chance your new character has to access their storage. There is also access to different merchants, traders, and skill trainers. Post-Searing Ascalon is a large region containing eleven towns/outposts and nine explorable areas. While this is still early in the game and there
are not any high end weapons, this is a good time to salvage items in order to build up a good stock of materials for weapon and armor crafting later in the game. I personally find this a good excuse to explore the region and to be honest, I find a great delight in killing some of the creatures that can be found in this area.


Progressing through the game will lead you through snow, mountains, jungles, deserts, and finally a desolate lava filled island. One of the things that I love about GW is that the player has the option to progress quickly through the story line or go off the beaten path and complete any of the over 50 non-primary quests in the tutorial alone! Not only that, but playing as a different profession gives a great deal of replayability. Different professions require different tactics and even offers different quests. Guild Wars Prophecies is a great game on it's own and even better with the other campaigns. This is a game I highly recommend if you are a rookie or veteran in the genre.

Guild Wars: 4 Years and Still Kicking

In order to play a game for four years you either have to really love the game or there has to be a lot of game to play. Luckily for me, both are true for Guild Wars. I started playing shortly after the game went live and I still play today. To keep us from getting bored Arena Net has released a total of three stand alone games that can be linked by account and one expansion pack. Now that we are awaiting GW2 we know that there will be no more expansions or stand alone games. So, how did ANet celebrate GW's 4th birthday? Instead of creating a whole new game ANet has given us reasons to relive the game we have come to know and love.

If you are like me and you still have your original character from the Prophecies campaign you might be ready for a change. Now you have the opportunity to give your character a make-over. Make-over packs are $9.99 and available through the NCsoft store. Not only will you be able to change your hair, body type, and facial features, but you are now able to change your gender. You will also be able to give your character features across all campaigns! With a change in appearance you may also want to update your name, with a slightly higher cost of $14.99 per character.



The Zaishen Menagerie is an outpost that was added in the update and is located in The Battle Isles. The Menagerie holds every type of pet that you have unlocked account wide. Now you will be able to switch your pets, for you or your heroes, without having to re-level them. There are different NPCs in the menagerie including one that will tell you about the different kinds of pets, how they fight, and where to find them. If you are like me and never spent much time playing as a ranger you have the option to buy an unlock pack from the NCsoft store. For $9.99 you can unlock all the standard pets and all their evolutions. As I said, this will unlock the standard pets, such as black bear, lynx, or the polar bear, it will not unlock prestige pets such as black moa or the rainbow phoenix.

Now maybe the reason why you have not played a ranger is because your ranger is currently carrying runes, hats, weapons, or any number of other in-game items. I hardly have to mention that after four years we have all accumulated a lot of stuff and have not had enough places to put it. Well, equipment packs might be the help that you need. These packs can be added to your character storage and hold weapons and armor. They can hold 5, 10, 15, and 20 items and can be bought from different merchants. Plus, for a limited time you can get a free Xunlai storage pane from the NCsoft store. If you still need more addition storage panes can be bought from the NCsoft store for $9.99.

One of the things I have found frustrating about GW over the years is my inability to try new builds at whim. Things got better once skill tomes were introduced, but it only helped if you have already unlocked the skill on your account. Obviously, if all my characters were used as storage I have not had much opportunity to unlock many of the skills the game has to offer. Now you have the option to buy skill packs ($9.99 each) from the NCsoft store. Once the skills are unlocked on your account you are free to use them for any of your heroes. You will also be able to unlock the skills for you character through skill tomes.


I understand that not everyone will be running out to spend money, especially in today's economy. The good news is that the team at ANet has added two other aspects to the game that are free to enjoy. The first is Nicholas the Traveler. Well, he is not actually new to GW, but if you have not been to pre-searing in four years he might as well be new. Every week The Traveler shows up in a new location collecting a different item. For these collectibles The Traveler will give you one gift of the traveler (5 gifts per account per week). Opening one of these gifts will give you a random item. These items can be summoning stones, alcohol, weapons, and more. I am not a huge fan of farming, but since the introduction of The Traveler I have found myself "hunting" in locations I have not spend much time in before. This also gives the opportunity to gain faction depending on the location.


The most exciting part of the update, maybe second, is the Zaishen Challenges. Each day three new challenges are posted on signs in The Great Temple of Balthazar. There are three types of quests (mission, bounty, and combat) with rewards in experience, faction, gold, title points and Zaishen coins. The Zaishen coins can be exchanged to collectors for some valuable items such as keys, scrolls, tomes, and equipment packs. The mission quests will send you off to complete different missions and possibly even give you a bonus for doing it in hard mode or according to specific directions. Furthermore, if you bring along the appropriate book you can also get the entry for it. With the bounty mission you will be asked to fight a boss. As it might be a dungeon boss this again gives you the chance to complete another entry in one of your books. Lastly, the combat quest is PvP and might be a GvG, hero, Jade Querry, and so on.

Guild Wars has provided us with an amazing four years of game play with no monthly fees. Now they have given us a chance to revisit people and places that we may have forgotten with new sets of rewards. We now have the chance to make-over our characters without actually deleting and starting over and we have all the storage we need to be able to play all those characters that have become level 5 storage dumps. ANet has given us not only GW2 to look forward to, but also new weekly and daily quests. If you have never played Guild Wars now is a great time to start and if you stopped playing in years past it is an amazing time to come back.


Guild Wars Trilogy (Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall)
Guild Wars: Eye of the North Expansion Pack

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 for Wii

Having the opportunity to blog about games and gamer news means that I might have to cover games I am not particularly interested in playing. This was certainly the case with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10. I have never played golf or even had much interest in playing. (This excludes miniature golf, of course!) To be honest, the only reason why I wanted to try this game was so I could get my hands on Wii Motion Plus. Wow am I pleasantly surprised!

TW10 has some very exciting new features. The first is the reason why I bought the game. Wii Motion Plus gives you the control over your Wiimote that I think we all assumed we would have when we bought our Wiis in the first place! The slightest turn of your wrist will now effect your swing.

If you do not want blame your poor game on a flick of your wrist then there is always the weather. TW10 has teamed up with The Forecast Channel to give you real time weather conditions on the course. The in-game weather changes in accordance to real life wind and rain conditions. Obviously, this can greatly effect your game and you will have to find a way to play through it. Or, you can play in a sunnier location.

The last of the new features that I am going to talk about made my boyfriend's jaw hit the floor and he immediately started texting. (He hates texting.) Disc Golf! TW10 includes 27 disc golf courses! I have never disc golfed before and the idea of dragging my nine month old out on the course does not sound very appealing to me. Now we can play in the comfort of our living room! As I have yet to try this new feature keep a look out for a later blog about my soon-to-be awesome disc golfing skills!

When I started this game I really did not know much about golf. Although the tutorial was some help, I am not sure it was helpful enough for those of us that really have no clue what we are doing. I eventually made it through the tutorial, but I did not really understand what I was supposed to be doing until I watched someone else do the tutorial too. This is probably because I am a visual learner. Yes, it does give you written direction, but it would have been nice if the game actually showed me how to play or had given me feedback.

After finishing the tutorial I was actually very excited to jump into the game and start playing. Since I am a true beginner I was happy to see that the "All Play" difficulty level was not just about making it easier to play. Yes, it does make it much easier, but I also feel that you can use the provided aiming guides to better understand how to be a better player. In a very short time I have a better understand on how to aim given wind and terrain and am looking forward to playing at a more difficult level.

Over all, I think Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 is a great game that just about anyone can play. I had the choice of buying it for Wii or X360 (I played the X360 demo) and I picked the Wii because of the Wii Motion Plus, but I honestly think playing on the Wii makes it much more enjoyable. Playing on the Wii makes me feel like I have more control and makes me feel more connected to the game. After playing for the first time I look forward to playing more and seeing everything this game has to offer.

Wanna play?
Wii
Wii MotionPlus bundle
Wii MotionPlus
Xbox360
PS3

The Time Traveler (Animal Crossing: City Folk)

When I first started playing Animal Crossing: City Folk I easily fell in love the simplicity and charm of the game. The problem with this was that wanting to play did not mean that I honestly had the time for it everyday...all day! I did not have the time to shake a town full of trees and water flowers everyday. I couldn't always buy turnips from Joan every Sunday or find old carpet early enough in the day to give three to Sahara. I quickly went from loving the game to resenting it. I resented that I had to play everyday and all times of the day to do the things I wanted to do or get the items I wanted.

Time travel was an easy solution to my problem. Sure, some people say that time travel is cheating. It would be one thing if I were time traveling in order to amass large amounts of money, but I really am not. I ended up time traveling backwards to Dec. 2007 which I admit seems somewhat random. The reason why I picked this time is because I started playing last Dec. and I did not want to play a month that I had not already played. I also missed a lot of in-game events due to family obligations and I wanted a chance to experience them. Why 2007? I was not sure how the game would react if I ended up playing at a date/time I had already played. Of course, I will eventually catch up to Dec. 2008. At this point I will have to take the time to skip forward at odd times of the day when I would not have already played (like 4am).

An important thing to mention is that in order to time travel I changed my Wii system clock date and time and not the in-game clock. This is very important for several reasons. The reason why this is important is because I routinely do not play the game for days or even a week at a time. This normally would have in-game consiquencies. So, everytime I go to play the game I change my Wii system clock back to the day after the last date I played. As long as you are moving forward from your last save, the game does not know that you have time traveled.

Ever since I have started time traveling I have relearned to love the game. I get to play on my time and not the game's. I do not have to play because "I have too" and I am free to do more important things first and play later. Even if some people feel that this is cheating, I think that it is more important to play a game in a way that makes it enjoyable.

Don't have Animal Crossing: City Folk yet? Purchase it here
Or! Get the Wii Speak bundle here

Civilization Revolution

I have grown up playing the Sid Meiers Civilization series on the PC. I honestly believe that this game is the reason why I have such a deep love for history. Although I still love the PC games I feel that there are several features that were added that were not really needed. So, I was a interested to see what Civilization Revolition has to offer.

After wasting $50 on Sims 3 last week I decided that it might be best to buy Civ used at Gamestop. Although my game did not have the manual I was quickly able to pick up the game concepts. Even if I had not been playing Civ for so many years the in game guides can get anyone started on thier way to world dominance.

Civilization is a game about world domination. You must take your civilization from a single fledging city to a world powerhouse. Winning does not just mean that you have to kill off all of your opponinates, as fun as that can be, you also can win by creating a large amount of culture, wealth, or technology.

The reason why I like this game is that it is a scaled down version of the PC games. Yes, this can be good or bad, but I think that the good outweighs the bad. Things like the worker unit have been eliminated from the game. Instead you build roads from your city screen and also pick what you want your city to focus on (production, growth, science, etc.). Previously you either had to micromanage all these units or put them on automatic. Managing individual workes was extremely time consuming as you accumulated more workers. Leaving them on auto risked them being captured during times of war.

Civilization has several different levels of diffiulty. Chiftain is good when you are bored, but do not feel like doing something too involved. Or you can play on the harder levels were every decision can mean winning or losing. As the difficulty increases your strategy must also change. Deciding where to build cities, which Wonders to build, and when to go to war are just some of the things that need to be determined throughout the game.

One of the things I do not like about the scaled down decision is the inability to abadon cities. Now, maybe you can but I just do not know how, but I spent a decent amount of time trying to figure out how. Do to my high culture another city decided to join my civilization. First of all, I did not have the choice. My second problem with this is that I space out my cities very carefully so that they do not share resource squares. This new city was in one of the worst spots possible, but I could not do anything about it.

A turn-based strategy game might not be everyone's cup of tea, but for $25 I honestly feel this game is worth a shot. If you are still not sure you can download the demo for free. You don't have every aspect of the game available to you, but you do get a good taste of what the game is and how to play.

Sims 3

I don't know about you, but I have been waiting for Sims 3 to be released for a very long time. I was counting down the days of the release last February just to have the date pushed back to June 2. With all that waiting you would think I would have been one of the first people to run out and purchase the game when it dropped, but I was sick. Good thing for me, I have a boyfriend who was willing to go out and by it for me. (Well, he was not just trying to be nice. He just didn't want to watch anymore E3 coverage.)

Once I had the game in my hands I was ready to install and start playing. Oh, wait. After I clear out 4 gigs. (Bye-bye pre-mommyhood pictures off to deep storage you go.) Not only that, but the install took FOREVER! I have never been a patient person, but this was ridiculous! It will all be worth it, right?

I had a feeling that the game would run slower on my laptop, but this is just crazy. When I say crazy I mean over seven minutes to save my game. SEVEN! I have not even checked out my town because leaving my house is not even worth the time it takes to do it. The saddest part is I am not the only person having these problems. I have talked to people who have far better computers than I do and they say that it runs slow for them too.

I am not sure what they were thinking when they made this game. Obviously they did not have the casual gamer in mind. Not everyone has the newest and fastest computers. (In today's economy some of us are lucky to be able to shell out $50 for a game let alone a new computer!) Plus, there are very few items on the website store. Where is all the costum content we were promised? I really hope that Sims 3 is not just the base product for the ten upcoming expansions packs that will undoubtedly come out in the future.

If you still want to give Sims 3 a try you can buy it here!