Игровая Жизнь

I'd like to ask our readers to join me in a moment of silent prayer, as my MacBook Pro prepares for a difficult and traumatic procedure - MLB (That’s Main Logic Board, not Major League Baseball) replacement. Yea, even in adversity, we can find joy in our lives - it’s all covered by Apple. Yehey! Unfortunately, that leaves me typing on WifeGamer’s HP Mini, with the Chiclets keys and underpowered javascript and flash performance. My Life is Farmville, but my interface is more like Intellivision, or Sinclair.

What does all of this mean? It means research for future reviews and columns, and submissions to get some ink up on my Boss’s news section, have become a tad problematic. Sure, my first submission was off the iPhone, but without word count tools, my first post was out-sized, and the Editorcutioner’s axe took my first post out at the knees!

In the interests of a steady paycheck, some unrelated tidbits and observations. Observation the first - Plants vs Zombies still rocks on iPhone, even if I’ve got iPad envy, with that beautiful huge screen, and additional game modes, like Endless. Oh well. Am waiting for Farmville for the iPhone (Yes, THAT Farmville), which should drop end of the month, middle of July at the latest. A different animal than your typical online experience in Flash, as it’s based on HTML 5, and will offer either local or push notifications, and some new features to care for your Mighty Plantation on an iPhone touchscreen.

ModNation Racers, and the creativity of the online community, continue to hold my attention. At this reading, Iron Man, Mario, and Spider-Man remain safely in the top spots for user-created content, and I’m jonesing to create a reasonable facsimile of the Spider-Mobile. While it might be better to leave Spidey’s modified Dune Buggy in the era that spawned it, I just can’t leave well enough alone. Ever. Seems Spidey was so broke, he took an endorsement deal. His very own Conservative Motors, if you will. MNR fans, you know what I’m talkin’ about!

It’s been a great month for gadget failure - even my Xbox360 has given up the ghost, with the dreaded E74 error displayed. Yep, RRoD all over the place. I’d get it fixed locally, but I prefer warranty service. Too bad the nearest location for that is Singapore - I hear I can literally exchange my console for another one, once the repair issue is verified. Maybe I can score one of the new consoles, that actually tells you it’s overheating, and shuts itself off? Heh.

God of War offers unexpected dividends, for my son - acing extra credit questions on Mythology (he’s a first-year student), he’s even able to correct the teacher (politely!), identifying Theseus, not Prometheus, as the man who slew the legendary Minotaur. Better yet, “Poseidon” makes an appearance on a spelling quiz! Thank Goodness they didn’t ask him to DEFINE Poseidon, or we’d see something like “The Chump I trashed in the first five minutes of God of War III.” Heh.

Boss says he’s got a few titles for me to review, and I hope one of them’s Red Dead Redemption. I could call this a “Wild West environment Sandbox Game”, but that would really be too dismissive. Like Grand Theft Auto, Bioshock, Oblivion and Fallout 3, morality, and personal conflict, have a role in the game’s progress and storyline. ‘Nuff said for now, more when I get my hands on a copy.