Stay at Home Mom Review and Giveaway ends 3-26

Many thanks to the folks at Stay at Home Mom, who recently reviewed Mcneill Designs products (review below). The site is also offering a $75 game giveaway, which ends 3-36-2010. To enter, visit Stay at Home Mom!

“I recently received some games from McNeill Designs. Which I was very excited about reviewing and offering one lucky reader a chance to win a set in a giveaway.

I was excited about this, because my family and I really love to play games. For the past 3 days we have been testing out these games. The games we got are “You’ve been Sentenced,” including 5 add on decks:

• Reader’s Digest National Word Power Challenge Deck
• Sports Highlights Deck
• Sci-fi and Fantasy
• Pop Culture Deck
• Gourmet Cuisine Deck

Also included was a fun card game called “Twisted Fish.” and the “Wheel of Chore-ture.”

Information about You’ve been Sentenced:

The latest in the evolution of games, “You’ve been Sentenced!” is the first game in history to really turn making sentences into a very funny, playable, and challenging game. Using a unique word deck of pentagon shaped cards containing conjugations of funny words, famous names from throughout history, familiar places, and wild cards, players have to make grammatically correct and justifiable sentences. The real fun begins when players have to read their sentences out loud and explain what they mean to the rest of players. They form the jury and vote thumbs up or down on whether the sentence and justification stand and the points are scored. 540 cards with over 2,500 words insure billions of possible sentences so the game is never repetitive and has unlimited re-play value.

My take on the games:

We first played “Twisted Fish.” Here’s a picture of my daughter playing it. This is a fun game similar to Go Fish, but with a twist. She wants to play this again soon.

Last night my son, daughter and I all played “You’ve been Sentenced.” Here’s my son getting his cards ready to play:

The kids really enjoyed playing this. And were really getting a kick out of making some very silly sentences. Any game that is fun and includes learning is great in my book. The kids liked it so much, they wanted to play again and weren’t concerned about watching TV, playing video games, or anything else last night.

So to me that says it all!”

[Via http://mcneilldesigns.wordpress.com]

Soul Sliver

Bought Pokemon Soul Silver last Saturday. Can’t take pictures of the box, looking at the time of post you might be able to guess why =p

Just leveling my Quilava, yeah ~

Anyone playing too?

[Via http://kiwiism.wordpress.com]

Hunch.com's Twitter Predictor Is Unbelievably Accurate!

Today I came across an app on Hunch.com that predicts things about your life by using information gathered from Twitter.  At first I was naturally skeptical.  Basically, the game tells you to put in your Twitter username, and then it asks you a series of questions and predicts what you’re going to say.  I answered 36 questions, and it correctly predicted every single one.  Some of these questions have several answers too.

It was scary accurate.  So scary accurate that I thought it was fake and it just “predicted” whatever answer you put in.  But then I realized that you can “take a peak” at Hunch’s prediction before you answer each question.  I started doing that about 10 questions in, and it continued to correctly predict my responses.

So how does this game work?  Presumably, it scans through your tweets, the people you’re following, your followers, and your profile, and uses that information to predict your answers.  After a while, it will start using your answers to other questions in the game to generate new ones.  It also uses whatever other information Hunch has collected from you over time.

Check out Hunch’s feedback/Q&A page about the Twitter Predictor by clicking here.

[Via http://unitedtechguys.com]

5 Great Games to Play to Music

Sometimes the inefficiency of sitting back and solely listening to music can’t be fit into my busy schedule and sometimes I need more than a game to relax and get my fix of entertainment. So I often combine the two, with varying results. Here are the winners.

#5 – Tremulous – Free

Rocking out while playing a first person shooter can often be problematic because of the intensely competitive nature of the genre, but Tremulous is well suited for the job. It doesn’t support voice chat so you don’t have to worry about missing any of the conversation. Also when you’re playing as an alien you will always have a radar, lessening your need to hear the enemy. Because it’s open source and available on Linux it also has a relatively friendly and intelligent community, as far as fps games go.

#4 – Defcon – $10 on Steam

This strategy game revolves around thermonuclear warfare and was inspired by the movie “War Games”. It’s very interesting to play and even manages to get you to think about your ethics for a second when you see hit 8.2 million dead and jump for joy. The game is extremely slow though, with some game modes stretching a match out over an entire day, giving you an excellent opportunity to enjoy some music as you monitor the trajectory of your ICBMs.

#3 – Quake Live – Free

Put simply: Quake 3: Arena but better… and in your browser. Since it’s pretty much mindless killing setting your “Impressive!” killing spree to music can’t hurt.

#2 – Trackmania Nations Forever – Free

If Quake is mindless killing, then Trackmania is mindless restarting because you didn’t hit the apex of that last corner quite as well as you might of. This is the racing game for perfectionists. Playing online remains competitive because there are no collisions and racers compete for the best times recorded within a set limit. Because the game-play itself is extremely repetitive the non driving part of your mind is free to enjoy music. Personally I find this game so mind numbing I’m usually able listen to podcasts while playing.

#1 – Audiosurf – $10 on Steam

The developer of Audiosurf was way ahead of me and has created a fusion of music and game like no other. Courses to race through in your spaceship are generated based on any song in your library (supports flac). The really great thing about this game is that it doesn’t eat up your time, each track is a unique and interesting experience but only lasts as long as one song.

[Via http://chancemuse.wordpress.com]

Miyamoto @ 2010 BAFTA Awards

English | Español

Yesterday in London, Miyamoto said he’s planning on bringing the Nintendo DS to schools. It may be a hard task, especially for teachers who are not gamers, but the creator of Mario states he’s doing his best to turn the portable console into an educational tool in the classroom.

Miyamoto-san made this statement in the UK before receiving the Fellowship at the 2010 GAME British Academy Video Game Awards. It is a prize great creative minds such as Alfred Hitcock and others have won.

For more videos of the 2010 BAFTA Awards, go to the following link: www.bafta.org/awards/video-games/.

Source: Nintendo aims to get consoles in schools [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100319/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_britain_nintendo].

Español | English

Ayer, en Londres, Miyamoto dijo que está pensando llevar el Nintendo DS a las escuelas. Puede ser una tarea difícil, especialmente para profesores que no son jugadores, pero el creador de Mario afirma que está haciendo todo lo posible para convertir la consola portátil en una herramienta educativa en el aula. Shigeru Miyamoto hizo esta declaración en el Reino Unido antes de recibir la beca en el 2010 GAME British Academy Video Game Awards. Es un premio que grandesmentes creativas como Alfred Hitcock y otros han ganado. Para más videos de los premios BAFTA 2010, visiten el siguiente enlace: www.bafta.org/awards/video-games/.

Fuente: Nintendo aims to get consoles in schools [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100319/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_britain_nintendo].

[Via http://elmundotech.wordpress.com]

DSI, Avatar and MW2 Pack

Well the kids are off to bed, well in bed and both ‘quietly’ playing their DSI’s so I’ve managed to get down earlier than usual.

Went into town today and treated myself to a new game. Well the game isn’t new (I don’t think) but it was a deal so I thought well it gives me something else to try as well on the xbox, especially as I’ve only played MW2 and Forza. Anyways I bought Avatar. No idea what it’s like and I nearly purchased Battlefield 2 (or something like that) but at £40.00 I thought I’d get something a bit cheaper. It may be crap but I wanted something a little different so I’ll pop it into tonight and see how it goes.

Whilst in town I noticed that Game are making the MW2 expansion pack available to pre-order and they are asking £9.99 for it so whilst it’s only a few quid saving, a few quid for some could make all the difference so thought I’d mention it.

[Via http://dvotee.wordpress.com]

Post-apocalyptic online games

Well, the title says it all. Here’s some links to free online post-apocalyptic games. The games might not have great quality, but hey, it’s free.

Apocalypse Online is a free MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) that, according to the site, takes place on a future Earth that has been ravaged by war. Society itself has been obliterated leaving only a few losely banded organizations attempting to protect themselves from the anarchy that threatens their day to day lives.

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Little Red Riding Hood – A Post Apocalyptic Adventure is a spot-the-differences/puzzle game with beautiful art and quite pretty music. No downloads.

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Super Energy Apocalypse: The world is in ruins.
Rebuild your base with sustainable energy choices, then survive the hordes
of mutant alien zombies. Be careful – you need energy to survive, but
pollution will make the zombies stronger!

[Via http://stwasteland.wordpress.com]