My Minecraft Experience

  When I was little, playing in the playground, I remember thinking "wow wouldn't it be cool if they made games where I could do anything, go anywhere and build anything?" It kinda blew my mind, that in a game like that I could jump the school yard fence and just explore the world with out boundaries or limitations. Look how far we have come since those days in the early 90's when games had ceilings and boundaries!! You now have games like Grand Theft Auto, Skyrim, Fallout, Red Dead Redemption... The world is yours to explore and no one can tell you you are doing it wrong. Well that is what Minecraft is.

  I obsess about almost everything. When I first found out about Minecraft and watched the Youtube videos, I NEEDED that game. I would dream and think about it all the time even though I hadn't played it .Problem was, at that point it was only a PC game. Then it came to the Xbox 360. Finally Minecraft pocket. I bought Minecraft pocket immediately and played for weeks straight. Then when I got my Xbox, I could finally play online, and have access to more items and larger worlds.

  For those of you who don't know what Minecraft is yet, it's a open world game where you have freedom to do whatever you like. The graphics are very different from other games, and are displayed in cubes. No circles/curves exist in Minecraft. You can play this game in creative or survival mode. Creative is great because you have unlimited resources and you can build whatever your heart desires. You can find some amazing creations on youtube top 5 ranging from cities, houses and rollercoasters. Here is a link to Minecraft top 5 cities:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFtUao0qxB8 . It is truly hard to describe the difficulty and man hours associated with creating great things in Minecraft. I made a mansion and it easily took me 8 hours so a whole city with this amount of detail is incredible.

  Survival on the other hand is just what it says. You start with nothing but your bare hands and start by chopping trees and digging dirt with you hands. You gradually collect resources and by nightfall the monsters come out!! Everything from skeletons, zombies, spiders, and not to mention the dreaded creeper!! Whats a creeper you ask? Well you know that house you just spent hours building? Creeper comes up and *BOOM* it blows you up along with your house.

 If you have friends that play, you can share your creations with your friends or play online to work together to build amazing things. I hope they expand Minecraft Pocket to have online play expanded beyond same room. I mean, what am I supposed to do, go on Craigslist and look for dorks to play Minecraft Pocket with?!? I love my creative world and would love to share it!!! All my houses are connected by underground tunnels.

My first house.

My mansion.

A must play game!!
Score: 10
Replay value: 10

Portal 2 Ah... Portal 2... Brings puzzle games to another level. It is nice to play a game without a true "weapon" and win with wit and portal physics. I had decided to pick this up on a whim after seeing countless memes on the internet showing something ridiculous being transported via a blue and orange portal. I didn't have too high of hopes, seems that anything out of the RPG genre disappoints me. I gave it a shot and it was addicting to say the least. The puzzles in Portal 2 are very hard, and I actually had to cheat online on two of them. Some of the puzzles force you to think so outside of the box that you think "this isn't going to work" and it actually works and you think you're a Goddamn genius.

The personality of the robots/supporting characters are terrific. The insults and wittiness from Glados alone are enough keep you entertained. And no, I did not play the first one. I should of, but I think they let it be known enough that Chell had destroyed Glados in the first game. I did enjoy her as a potato. Anyway there is a portal drinking game on YouTube, this would be a very fun game to play on a Friday night on co-op mode with a friend. That is, if you have nothing to do on Friday nights and you have friends. The single player play through was terrific. Buy this game!!

Retro Gaming

Retro Gaming

Hindsight is 20/20. That is what I think about with my SNES games. Back in the 90's my parents dismissed our gaming and largely regulated it. Do all the chores, homework and church and we could squeeze in a few hours of gaming. It was worth every minute. In my household, it was an escape my brother and I cherished. Took us away from everything around us, and submersed us in a world of imagination, magic, power and responsibility. It was a valuable escape too, and helped us through tough times.

My parents got into the beanie baby phenomenon of the 90's. Purchasing hundreds and hundreds of beanie babies, hoping to make tons of money selling them in the next decade for thousands. Well, you know the story as well as I do. It was a ridiculous fad consisting of crappie made Chinese stuffed toys. What they should have been doing is investing in our games. While they drove across the state for a McDonalds Beanie Baby, we sat in our rooms playing our old SNES games. If they only new that Earthbound, a splurge of $50 dollars at the time would be worth upwards of $4000 dollars mint and boxed today, maybe they would have paid more attention to our gaming instead of a weird obsession with plastic beaded stuffed animals.

I would love to have a mint box of Secret of Mana, Legend of Zelda, Earthbound and Donkey Kong Country. Just so I could display it on my shelf and give credit to these for getting me through my childhood. But spend 4k? I don't think so!! So for now, I just put some ebay offers on the table for a shot at playing Chrono Trigger and getting my long lost Earthbound players guide back. Remember the scratch and sniff stickers?? Those were incredible.

Although I wish my collection was greater, I took a picture of my games.

Some list prices now (factory sealed and mint):

Secret of Mana: $4,900
Earthbound: $3,800
Chrono Trigger: $1,500
Super Mario RPG: $1,500
Final Fantasy 3: $2,000

Just a few examples above, tons more of course.

Oh and let's not even get started with a mint copy of the original Mario Brothers on NES... Mint copy lists for $17,000!!!

I would love to get my hands on a used Harvest Moon, Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy III, just for playing purposes. I'll be keeping an eye out for these, would love to play them on my Supaboy!!

Why would a girl be so obsessed with gaming you ask? Because at one time it was all she had.

Mass Effect 3

Possible spoilers...

I'm not going to go into this game with a huge review. If you played the first two games, this game is amazing. If not, you may feel a little left behind. ME3 is heavily story based and was a phenomenal game all the way through to the last 10 minutes. All the rumors of the ending falling short are of course true. Whether or not you believe in the indoctrination theory, plot holes still exist with this. I don't know if EA/Bioware will be able to put the band-aide on it even with DLC content. I was ready to start the whole game over and play through again before I hit the last 10 minutes of this game, then I thought "what's the point?" I would still have the same 3 ending choices no matter how many times I play through with different decisions or paragon/renegade.

I'm a little monotone with this review because, hey, I'm sad it's over and nothing felt complete for me. It would have been the best game of all time, and maybe it still is and I'm processing it. For those people who are all "I think you just don't understand the indoctrination theory" trust me, I do. During the whole earth scene I was called "Sir" as a FemShep, where they were so meticulous the entire game to address me as a female and approach me as a female, this tells me that the ending was rushed and incomplete.

Score before ending: 10
Score after ending: 8

Replay Value: 5

Multiplayer: 8

And thank you to whoever made this on memebase.com to point out... WHERE THE HELL IS MY FINAL BOSS FIGHT???

Mass Effect 2

In honor of the upcoming Mass Effect 3, (less than a week!), I would like to give my review on Mass Effect 2. This game is epic in every sense of the word. In ME2 we don't strive to live up to a destiny, prove our worth or try to become the hero, we are the hero who has respect immediately as he/she steps into the scene and is known by almost everyone in the galaxy. Shepard calls the shots and everyone else follows.

This game was everything I have ever dreamed of in a game. An amazingly done sci-fi RPG/third person shooter. I loved how much detail was put in to every planet, what its composition was, alien occupancy, safety, the atmosphere... I know a lot of gamers didn't care too much about those details but these little things really made this game awesome. As someone who has always wondered "what's out there", being able to travel light speed and explore was great. But what really made this game was the characters. From the very beginning we question the Illusive Man's motives and what he really seeks. We are able to make decisions and give Commander Shepard a real personality. Shep doesn't need to take orders, she simply does what she wants and can build relationships out of these interactions, whether that makes them lovers or enemies.

The most brilliant part of the game that BioWare established was that Shepard had a VOICE. There are too many games to name where the main character never talks. Many where we can't even select a text line responding and almost none where we actually HEAR the main characters voice as we control her thoughts. This is what established such a bond between the gamer and the game itself. I no longer felt as an outsider looking in on this world, I felt I was in this world. And if you choose Sheppard to say "no" she doesn't simply say "no", her responses are well thought out and can be witty, sarcastic, firm and so on. So bravo BioWare for doing what others don't. I'll give you an example, I love Skyrim and Fallout, they are excellent games. But I feel very disconnected from the main character. When the character makes a decision or talks to someone we see no emotion in our characters face, we don't even see our characters face. And we never hear their voice. If you answer yes or no to someone, it is just that. No thoughtful thinking and no voice behind the decision. I don't even know what my main characters faces look like in Skyrim or Fallout, but my Female Sheppard will always be burned into my mind because I am her and she is me.

BioWare did an excellent job with the casting of the voices in this game. It was like a movie. In any game I've ever played, I can't really remember the voices except of maybe the main character, but in ME2 I can recall every voice and personality of almost every main character. This was exceptional.

Don't think I was gonna leave out my sci-fi lover... The opportunity to have a relationship in this game is one you should not pass up. It was so much fun and a rush that left me feeling like I was back in 8th grade chasing my crush. At first I just didn't think that there were many suitors from a FemShep standpoint. I felt a little left out. But then I met Thane and all that changed. Yes, I'm a Thane lover and I know there are many many other females that share my love for him. I started reading fan fiction for God sake, just so I could drag out my Sheppard/Thane relationship. And for the male Shepards out there, don't act like you didn't fall in love with Tali, Ashley or Liara...

The storyline was phenomenal, graphics amazing, music superb. There is nothing that I would change about this game (except maybe a Thane sex scene).

Score: 10
Replay Value:10

Fable 2

Fable 2 was a pretty good game with many choices involved to create the hero of your choice. The game starts with the hero as a child as she explores the city as an orphan and rescues a dog who was being mistreated. After a traumatic event, we join the hero again as a young adult with her trusty dog she rescued by her side. The world is open to you and yours to explore. The game seems very cartoony and childish in graphics but don't be fooled, the game is very mature. You constantly have quests that you can do at your leisure and the main story line can be completed at your own speed. There are also many side quests you can undertake that require a lot of work and exploring. You can be good, bad, corrupt, pure, fat, skinny, ugly, pretty, nice, mean, funny serious... the choices are yours to make.

I found that making money in this game started very slow, I was just scraping by until the very end of the game when I could finally buy some more expensive properties. As a female character you take the short end of the stick, the selection of husbands in this game is lacking compared to the women, and everyone wants to take you to bed. It gets really annoying have people constantly want to have sex with you and follow you around like puppy dogs. Also, the female characters are lacking in the beauty department. The look like orcs, weighing in around 250 and 6 feet tall with rippling muscles and huge quads, the men barely reaching her chest in height. I like my female characters to be smokin' hot and she did not meet my standards at all, in fact as many female gamers before me put it, she was just a dude with boobs.

This game made me realize that whatever game I play I need to always have subtitles. I put around 40 hours into this game and by the end of it had no freaking idea of what was going on or the story line at all. It was ragingly loud during the fight scenes and then when the hooded chick talked I was like "WTF did she just say??" So I can't tell you much about the story line. She had three companions that were never available except in a couple of the main story lines quests, it would have been nice utilize the companions more, as they just seemed like a wasted part of the game. All in all it was good but nothing truly amazing.

Rating: 8
Replay value: 4

BRB

BRB playing Skyrim see you in a million years... haha, no but if anyone actually reads this, what is your race on Skyrim? Like it a lot so far because it reminds me of Fallout 3 which makes the process a lot easier to learn. I am a Wood Elf, female of course. This game kicks ass.

Make Love Not Warcraft- my WoW addiction

South Park has always been one of my favorite shows. Its far out ridiculousness and over the top episodes are the reason I like it so much. Well one day in my normal South Park watching routine, the episode "Make Love Not Warcraft" came on. This, my friends, this single episode, made me want to purchase this game. I had to have it, it was everything I wanted in a game, to make a customized character with special traits and abilities, the freedom to explore a whole world while being an Elf (what I always wanted to become).

We preceded to Best Buy where I purchased my treasure. I have heard countless people state "this game took two years of my life away" or "this game ruined my life" on and on... There is no way this would happen to me I thought. I have self control. HA!!! By the time I was done with this game 2 plus years later I was almost reduced to Cartman asking his mom for a bucket for him to shit into. No joke ladies and gentlemen, this game will ruin you. Why you ask? This is a game that always changes, you can never win, you can never be the best. Your equipment will always be shitty, you will never have all the best enchants or the best weapons, you will never be in the best guild or have the best group to run dungeons with, you will never beat all the raids or in my case beat any raid, and you play countless hours a day to be better or level alts just to remain shitty. Because the people with all that shit above that I just mentioned play for 18 hours a day rather than the 6 that you play.


It was such a relief to come back to regular gaming and not have 13 year old's call me a cunt and tell me to die. With regular gaming I could just be shitty and complete my games at a normal pace of 4-6 hours of video games a day. I do miss my level 85 night elf Azadeh and my level 85 human mage Nasreen and countless alts, but they are in a better place, frozen in time with Blizzard begging you to come back to them for the price of $16 a month and numerous new expansion packs to buy. Yes, sometimes I think back and miss WoW but for the most part, I am glad I broke the addiction.

Score: 10
Replayability: INFINITE

My anticipated games 2012

I am writing this in between blogs since my next one is taking a while. There are so many great games coming out in 2012 and so many I am looking forward to.

My number 1 most anticipated game goes to...

Mass Effect 3!! I absolutely can't wait for this game, the second one blew me away (another blog to come) and I hope this lives up to all the hype! I do have one concern though, with all the bugs in PS3 lately, I hope my pre-ordered ME3 game on PS3 isn't riddled with bugs like Fallout New Vegas and Skyrim... I do have an xbox 360, so maybe I will consider the xbox version... Anyway, I am a fem Shepard and LOVE Thane Krios... Yes you boys will be annoyed by this, so I will tell you that yes, Tali is sexy, Ashley, meh, and Miranda is a bitch.

Other awesome 2012 games:
Metal Gear Solid: Rising- But won't be the same without Snake :'(
Diablo III- haven't played *gulp* but my brother swears by Diablo
Bioshock Infinite
Assassins Creed III
GTA V

I've seen a few comics about Raiden being a girl, and some chicks dressing up as Raiden, but I think he is a manly sexy man.

Anyway, there are A LOT of games to anticipate in 2012, but these are the ones I'm excited for

Uncharted Series

Uncharted 1: Drakes Fortune
Yes the graphics are amazing, gameplay is smooth and storyline flows, but to me this game was very bland and personally I couldn't wait to finish it for the mere fact of trading it back. This game was way too linear for my tastes and some of the gunfights were tedious and drawn out. In some instances (closer to the beginning of the game) you had to clear out 40 plus enemies with a hand gun which just got plain boring. Not to mention the hand gun was like tossing pebbles at rhinoceroses. The zombies were a nice twist... Kept me on my feet.

Bottom line for me
Game: 6
Replay Value: 0

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Ok I know I just slammed the first game, so why play the second? Well as I was researching new games to play, this game won so many damn rewards and had so many game sites that gave it a 10 (10 is rare to find) that I had to see if improvements were made. The graphics were even more detailed and amazing this game, the attention to detail was superb, some of the conversations made me laugh and Chloe is a nice upgrade from Elena in terms of looks. The gameplay is still smooth and simple, melee combat almost solely exists by tapping square but is improved from the last game with sneak modes. The storyline is terrific, but I do find myself bored in some of the drawn out gunfights, although they have improved from last game. The weapon choices are still a bit scarce for me and the enemy intelligence is minimal. Bottom line: the original landscapes and storyline always kept me guessing and it was also very challenging on normal mode. Great game, definitely worth the $20 that the game is now going for.

Game: 8
Replay Value: 5

If I decide to play 3, I will update!

God of War

God of War 1

WOW what a game!! Whoever thought of this is a genius, you know what I mean if you actually read Greek mythology, the whole concept of it being put into a game is awesome. This game's graphics and storyline were excellent, the gameplay was smooth and the combo attacks were fun and challenging. The puzzles were just hard enough. I have no complaints with this game, it is original and well done.

Score: 9
Replay Value: 5

God of War 2

This game for me was highly anticipated and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. It totally met my expectations in every way, and even exceeded them. The puzzles were harder, graphics even more bad ass and the bosses were a blast and very hard. It was colorful and exciting and had an even more enticing storyline. The best part was slowly being introduced to mythological characters and seeing how the game portrayed them and the role they played.

Score: 10
Replay Value: 5

God of War 3

I don't know what happened... I hated this game. I feel like I'm alone on this. In no way did this fill the void of completing the series. Kratos has always been kind of a dick, but this game made him the dick of all dicks. He just creeped me out the entire game and made me feel like I was helping a murderous rapist destroy the world. This game depressed me, everyone dies and everything is destroyed. At the end no more Gods exist and no more world exists, just chaos and wandering souls. Yes, this may be the point of the game's storyline and it wasn't supposed to be sunshine and unicorns but I just felt like the game fell short. The bosses were simpler and fewer than GOWII and the scenery was just a big loop, I was so sick of seeing the same 3 statues in the main room and hated the big cube labyrinth. It wasn't hard, it was boring and tedious. Finding Zeus as the main storyline was drawn out and the same thing as GOWII, except the battle was very underwhelming. Glad to be done with that game, if he did fall into the sea, I won't be playing Kratos a 4th time. BLAH and disappointment.

Game: 5
Replay Value: 3

My #1 ranked SNES game- Earthbound

Ah, the year was 1995. My brother and I aged 7 and 12 woke early Christmas morning to the vast array of colorful presents under the tree. There was nothing quite like Christmas to us, a free day of sorts to just eat and play the day away. We could usually get away without doing any chores. We always scoped out the video games, in there rectangular box, but this year something was different. Our mom (santa) initially gone to get a different game, one we had asked for. They were all sold out. But the hundreds of untouched large Earthbound boxes sat neatly lined up awaiting someone to pick them up. She did, in place of the other game. We unwrapped Earthbound in it's very large box, unusual for an SNES game and quickly rolled our eyes thinking it was another dud game. That night we gave it a try, we were hooked. The manual it came with was my bible, I carried it everywhere, and read it over and over planning the next days strategy. We quickly wore out the scratch and sniff stickers that smelled of awful things that I can't quite remember. We must have died about 300 times when we were that age playing this game, but the ending brought a tear to our eye and still does today.

If you know of Earthbound, you could probably tell by my blog background I am a fan. Now choosing Earthbound as my favorite SNES game was a tough choice, a close call next to Zelda: Link to the Past, Secret of Mana, Super Mario RPG and Breath of Fire. So how did I come to this conclusion? Earthbound is one of the most creative and randomly insane games I've ever played, it's pure childhood silliness while still keeping an adult player challenged and begging for more is hard to do. This game is now a rarity, a used copy will put you back $200 and find a rare mint game with the manual and you're talking $600-$1000. This game is becoming a rare gem, virtual console and Nintendo DS won't release it due to what I heard is "copyright infringements" because the Runaway Five somehow resemble the Beatles and other weird accusations.

What is Earthbound? Earthbound is an RPG cult classic, staring a young boy named Ness. Ness joins up with three other young kids Paula, Jeff and Poo as the chosen four to fight a war against the Giygas, or aliens. They travel to all sorts of locations from towns to cities, vast deserts to snow covered Stonehenge and meet many friends on the way. Ness also travels in a few dream like states and fights alone. The gameplay is straight forward RPG and pretty easy, some strategy is definitely involved, even after my 20th time playing I still die in battles. Ness must travel to his Sanctuary locations and record them on his Soundstone to become more powerful. You will encounter strange enemies like New Age Retro Hippie, Master Barf, Annoying Old Party Man and the all awesome Kraken (RELEASE THE KRAKEN!!). The enemies in this game are so original and fun, and you can fight enemies with strange objects like a toothbrush, dirty pair of socks or Monkey Love.

Hail Earthbound!

Score: 10
Replayability: 10

Welcome to my blog

I have been a female video gamer since the wee age of 5 years old around when the first Nintendo was all the rage in 1987. The first memories I have are of Super Mario Brothers (what else?) Adventure Island, The Legend of Zelda and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Some of my other favorite NES games at the time were Kid Icarus, Metroid, Mario 2 and 3 and the all awesome Mega Man. The sweet feeling of the hard square remote in my hands and the amazing colors glowing on the screen, I was in heaven.

I was hooked immediately and haven't stopped since. This blog is to commemorate and review my favorite video games of all time and the other video games I have played. I do have a specific taste for games, you won't see me write about sport games or racing games (besides Mario Kart), and rarely a war game!!

I have an imagination unlike any other, and nothing quite feeds it, quite satisfies it like an amazing game. Take me out of the world around me and make me the hero that saves the city, universe or world. Or simply make me a scoundrel that survives off of scraps in a post apocalyptic world.

No I am not paralyzed, below is my favorite cuddle position with my cat Tabby who frequents my laps during TV and video game sessions. I have a career and stay in shape with running and video games is my biggest hobbies (or downfalls).