OnLive to Take Video Games to the Cloud

Interesting technology brought to my attention here: OnLive to Take Video Games to the Cloud...it allows (or will, when it's released) you to play high-end video games on computers that couldn't otherwise (cross-platform or low-end hardware, for instance), as long as you have a quick internet connection, for a monthly subscription. Verrrry interesting :)

I'd personally love to see out-of-date games that don't run on modern OS's as well as hard-to-find games like RealMyst show up, in addition to just the high-end new stuff. I don't understand how they can stream that kind of quality, but I can't wait to see. It looks like it might be much better than the lackluster GameTap service; even though they appear very similar on the surface, GameTap still required your hardware to do the heavy lifting (after having downloaded the whole game, a glitchy process), rather than centralizing the processing on their servers and simply sending you the video.

Travian web browser game

So we've found this really fun game called Travian- it's kind of like Age of Empires, but in much closer to realtime. And you're playing against thousands of people from all over the world. And it runs 24/7. So you gain resources at a set rate per hour, and that's a real hour...whether you're logged on or sleeping or whatever. You can upgrade your resource fields to make more per hour, build buildings, and of course, raise an army, allowing you to steal other players' resources. It's really a blast.

It started off just being me playing, but Kyla was intrigued and soon started her own game. Now she's playing on two servers, and I'm on three. It's great, because you can spend as much or as little time on it as you wish- five minutes a day is more than adequate, so it's easily something anyone's schedule will accomodate- Daniel's even started a game on the same server as us and he's doing quite well! We all started on one of the servers that was just beginning (each game lasts just over a year or so), so we'll eventually be among the 'big dogs' on the server.

Anyway, it's highly recommended...and since it's all online, you can log in from any internet-connected computer or even most phones! No software required, and no unreasonable requirements. It's really addictive though.

Edit: some links I find useful: http://code.google.com/p/travianearth/ http://travianhelper.nl/

Strongbad on the Wii!

I heard the rumor from my cousin this weekend, but a small amount of research found
this well-hidden homestarrunner page referring to Strongbad's upcoming games on the Wii! The best part, in my opinion, is that they won't be game disks (read: $50)...they'll be the launch of the WiiWare part of the Wii Shop channel as it was intended: a source for smaller, non-studio-type games designed just for the Wii and offered at (presumably) lower prices.

According to the original press release, there will be 5 games released, beginning in June, with each following episode released at the rate of one per month.

I love this idea- it's a great marriage of two things I'm a big fan of, but I do hope that Strongbad doesn't get too big, too fast- going truely mainstream would, I'm afraid, degrade what makes it funny in the first place. Going down this path might lead to an animated Saturday morning cartoon series with Strongbad or something, and that just wouldn't work. I laugh at the title of their announcement (Lappy 486 has sold out!), but I hope the brothers don't actually full-on sell out. It's too funny as it is. Though I do wish for more frequent updates of the podcasts and an rss feed for the Strongbad emails...

Fruit Salad Card Game

Kyla and I were over at some friends' house last night, and they introduced us to a fun card game called Fruit Salad. It's similar to Hearts, but with some substantial twists. The rules are hard to find, so I did a little research, and here are the rules, as best as I can make out:

-The goal of the game is to finish with the fewest number of points
-Each "set" is comprised of the number of "tricks" as every player has cards. (a trick being the time in which play has proceeded completely around the table every player has played a card).
-The dealer rotates to the left after each set
-The player to the left of the dealer begins each set
-Aces are high, followed by King, Queen ... and so on to 2- the lowest card
-Jokers are not used in this game
-Each player should have the same number of cards, so remove the number of lowest cards possible as necessary in the following suit order: Clubs, Diamonds, Spades, Hearts

A set is played by:
-The player to the dealer's left begins by taking any card from their hand and placing it face up on the table. The play proceeds to the left from there.
-Each player must play a single card on top of the original card by removing it from their hand and placing it face up on the table. If they have one or more cards in the same suit as the original card, they must play one of them. If they have no cards in the same suit as the original card, they may play any one card from their hand, but may not win the trick in this case.
-When everyone has played one card, the trick is over. The 'winner' of the trick is the person who played the highest card in the same suit as the original card, even if the winning card was the original card.
-The 'winner' of the trick removes the cards from the table and keeps them stacked for scoring at the end of the set. If desired, they may remove the cards worth points and keep them in a separate pile to make scoring easier at the end of the set (see below).
-The winner of the trick now begins a new trick by playing any card from their hand, and play continues as above to the left.

When each set is over, scores are recorded for each player as follows:
-In the first set, only each trick won is worth 10 points
-In the second set, only each heart suit card won is worth 10 points
-In the third set, only each queen won is worth 25 points to the players winning them
-In the fourth set, only the king of spades is worth 100 points to its winner
-In the fifth set, only the last trick won is worth 100 points
-In the sixth set, ALL of the above scoring rules apply

At the end of the game (a game being six sets), the scores are totaled for each player, and the player with the lowest score is declared the winner.

Notes:
-Especially on the last set, scoring may happen after each trick, if desired.
-Instead of removing low cards to ensure each player has the same number of cards in their hand, you may add low cards to the game from a second deck, in reverse suit order as above (that is, first add the 2 of hearts, then spades, then diamonds, then clubs). That lets you have one more trick per set, and adds low cards to the game to mix things up a bit.

Guitar Hero for Wii

Yes...we got it.
Yes...we're nerds.
Yes...we LOVE it!

As far as I can tell, the recall on the Wii disks for only including Mono sound, rather than the box-advertised Dolby Pro hasn't happened, but it's not that big a deal. I understand why the graphics are far below those for XBox and Playstation, but they seem AWFULLY bad...even something like Mario Galaxy seems far graphically superior, though I love the hand-drawn cut scenes.

But my big surprise with this game is that you can't have the Wii Remote Jacket on the Wii Remote with the Guitar Accessory, the Jacket now being an official part of the Wii Remote, bundled with the new systems and everything. At least it's not that big a deal to take off, and we'll probably be doing that with two of our remotes anyway, now that Daniel got us one of those cool Wii Remote Recharger bases - they don't work with the jacket either, but it's worth it to have rechargable batteries in the Wiimote now!

Another thing I wish is that you could configure is which buttons on the remote played the respective notes for P2 if you don't have another guitar controller (and when are more of those coming, anyone?)...the B trigger is awfully akward to press when you're holding the controller sideways. They'd have been better off using two of the directions on the d-pad, rather than just one, and not using B at all. Oh well, hopefully we'll be able to find another guitar and never worry about that again!

All this aside though...Guitar Hero ROCKS (pun intended). And I know it's cheesy and adolecent, but hey, fun is fun! (Note Guitar hero has been added to my list of Wii games in the sidebar of this blog). ☺

Super Mario Galaxy

OK, so I don't "officially" have this game yet (it's my Christmas present, but if Kyla gets to play with hers early, so do I ☺), but I've played about 30 minutes into Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii, and let me just say...YEAH!!!

It's gotta be done by the same team that did Mario 64, or something...it's so close to the same game. The controls, jumps, etc are pretty much identical. But that's a GOOD thing - Mario 64 was AWESOME, after all. And after the disaster that was Super Mario Sunshine, this is a breath of fresh air. And what a genious way of bringing in 2-player mode - Kyla can just come in and out of the game as she pleases!

Anyway, this game rocks. Now I'm just waiting for Mario Kart Wii in February - WiFi enabled is going to MAKE this game.

Check Mii Out!

Another new channel for the Wii has finally been released (and it's been quite a while since this one was announced)! It's called "Check Mii Out", and it's basically a place to share the Mii's (avatars) you've created on the Mii channel. They have a section where you just share your Mii's for fun, then they've got another section where they'll hold contests you can enter with your Mii's.

The current contest is looking for a Mii that looks most like Mario (of Super Mario Brothers fame), without his hat. I guess you'll have to go into Mario64 and let that bird take your hat to make sure you get it right!

There are just some impressive Miis that have been submitted in the plaza however...Darth Vader, an endless variety of Michael Jacksons, Kermit and Miss Piggy...the list goes on! I really can't figure out how they got some of these characters from the (fairly basic) Mii creator options! This channel allows you to copy any Miis in the plaza right onto your Wii, then rename and/or edit them yourself...much more flexible than Miis you 'mail' to another Wii from the Mii channel directly (doing this causes a read-or-delete-only copy of the Mii to be sent to the other console - no renaming or editing is allowed). It'd be fun to get into a boxing match with Vader!

On a side note, WOW did this channel download fast! It's all due to our significantly upgraded Internet connection speed, but it downloaded faster than NES games used to! That's going to make downloading VC games so nice...it's faster to download them than to transfer them to/from an SD card now.

Xbox Family Timer

Microsoft announced this week the addition of a new feature to their gaming console; the Xbox 360 Family Timer. It allows you to use the parental controls to regulate when and for how long the console can be used (for instance, only between the hours of 2-6pm, and for no more than 90 minutes per day). I didn't realize that they didn't have this feature before...I guess I'd assumed since their operating system has that ability, they'd already ported it to the 360. But, since it wasn't included at first, then all I've got to say is...finally!

Now if only the Wii would do that, too...it's the one parental control feature that I've always felt was missing.

Super Mario Brothers World " -1"

I don't know how, but somehow I managed to not hear about SMB world -1 until last week! Of course, once I know it exists, you know I've got to get there! Well, last night I finally got there...it took me three lives, but I managed to do it! Very cool...for one big glitch!

Now I wonder if there's any truth in the report (that hasn't been updated since 2003 or 2005, despite promises that more information would be forthcoming) that taking the correct route (Koopa Castle maze-style) and getting all the coins allows you to swim past the end pipe and continue on, eventually to an underwater castle and a green toad. I saw a video on YouTube that shows someone beating world -1 by hacking the ROM, and since the following worlds don't resemble what was reported to follow -1 in that first link, I'm betting that all those images are photoshopped, and the report false.

Oh well...fun stuff! Imagine me not knowing a basic SMB secret after all this time...