Game Talk

Coming Soon: Wedding Dash: Ready, Aim, Love!

Some of you might think I’m nuts, but I prefer Wedding Dash to Diner Dash. Oh, I love that Flo, but I find her games too hard to play. Quinn’s world starts easy and builds up the challenge little by little. In Wedding Dash: Ready, Aim, Love! Cupid joins Quinn plus Flo has a bigger role as she takes care of serving the wedding guests.

This one introduces a new mini-game for a cute change of pace that integrates nicely with the story. Cupid needs to shoot arrows at a male and female that matches the couple shown. You control where he shoots the arrow and how hard he shoots it. Oh, by the way, Cupid looks nothing like a cherub; more like a kind-looking grandfather. The mini-game occurs about halfway through each level.

Quinn also holds the weddings in unique locales beginning with an aquarium. Really — it’s a calming scene that looks made for a wedding. Then she moves to a barn and to the boardwalk, which has a fab background.

Ready, Aim, Love! adds several twists to enhance the game instead of give us more of the same. In previous versions, players have to select three things that match the couple’s request. You can have different good answers in this one. Instead, Quinn has a budget and she has to pick three things to meet the budget or better yet, have some money leftover. For instance, a couple wants to reflect their trip to India and match its orange, white and green flag. So pick the items that are orange, white and green or perhaps as something related to India like curry.

We also meet new guests. No more weepy Aunt Ethel and Drunk Uncle Ernie. Quinn will take care of all the crises as usual, but we meet new ones. Meet a wedding crasher that you need to lead him to the exit and Rosie with her little puppy. Rosy cries whenever her pup gets away. Quinn needs to cheer her up, find the dog and return it to her. The twins who must do everything together including be served to at the same time return. We meet new handsome and sweet people like Brian, Jason and the three bridesmaid friends. They’re a nice change from Gloria. Then we have the mother of the bride — a very difficult customer to please.

Gone is the confetti machine and champagne bottles. Instead, Quinn has lovely cocktail tables to help the guests remain patient a little longer. Also new is the microphone that lets the guests say something to the happy couple. Quinn earns love tokens to use in shopping for upgrades. While upgrades appear in many time management games, Ready, Aim, Love! offers many upgrades instead of just three to make it more challenging and to change things up enough to add to the replay value.

This looks like it’ll exceed Wedding Dash fan expectations. The game release date is within a couple of months. No official date yet. Hey, even wedding couples don’t always have a date set right away. And it will be available for both Win and Mac computers. In the meantime, you’ll have to settle for Wedding Dash 2 until this one is ready for prime time at Playfirst.

Video Game Music Compilation

Game Music 4 All releases its first free internet compilation. It is called Here Comes a New Challenger. It is a compilation of chiptune, nerdcore, and VG musicians collaborating together as a tribute to video games. Get more info and download the album for free.

40% off Games in Honor of Great Moms

Big Fish Games offers a 40% off coupon any game in honor of Mother’s Day. But you can buy a game for yourself or anyone. Steps:

1. Explore Big Fish Games.
2. Find and try games until you find the perfect match.
3. Click “Buy.”
4. Enter mothersday in the code box.

The coupon is good until May 16. If you’re struggling to find the right gift for Mom — you still have time and you don’t have to mail anything.

Recommendations for Mom:

• Enigma
• Build-a-Lot 2
• Build-a-Lot
• Chocolatier 2: Chocolate without the guilt
• Dream Chronicles 1
• Dream Chronicles 2
• Dream Day series

Study Shows Casual Games Relieve Stress and Improve Mood

I don’t need a study to tell me that playing casual games helps relieve stress and improve my mood. When the writing muse stays away or my spirits drop, I play a game I need to review. Almost every time (don’t like to use 100%), I feel better after a few rounds of a casual game.

See the results of the study and the Popcap Games press release.

Game du Jour: Week of 2008-05-05

Build-a-lot 2: Town of the Year already available at a discount! The following games will be discounted this week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Mon. May 5th: 60% off on The Butler Did It!

Tue. May 6th: 40% off on Build-a-lot 2: Town of the Year

Wed. May 7th: 60% off on SnakeTris

Thu. May 8th: 60% off on Frutti Freak

Fri. May 9th: 50% off on 5 Star Mahjongg

Sat. May 10th: 50% off on First Star Software’s Greatest Hits

Sun. May 11th: 50% off on Towers

Grand Theft Auto IV Release Worries Hollywood

A game… worrying the movie makers? According to canada.com, Hollywood needs to keep an eye on this game’s mega release. I just don’t see gamers giving up movie watching because of a game no matter how popular it is.

Gamers have games they captivate them, but they still do their regular activities. Those who already spend hours gaming gave up on movies long ago.

Game News: 19 April 2008

• The economy can’t be down games as video games immune to US slowdown. W00t!
• Video game sales soar in March. W00t again!
• EA extends deadline for Take-Two tender offer, lowers price
• Build your own MAME cabinet.
• The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies: Microsoft beats Nintendo and Sony. This stinks. What you think?

Game du Jour: Week of 2008-04-07

The following games will be discounted this week on Game du Jour. All deals good for 24 hours.

Mon. Apr. 7th: 40% off on Cate West: The Vanishing Files

Tue. Apr. 8th: 60% off on Glutton

Wed. Apr. 9th: 50% off on Spring Up!

Thu. Apr. 10th: 50% off on Keeps & Moats Chess

Fri. Apr. 11th: 60% off on Lost Geishas

Sat. Apr. 12th: 60% off on Cave Days

Sun. Apr. 13th: 60% off on Trick Ball

10 Overused Game Journalism Cliches

When I first started doing casual game reviews, praising or picking apart a game came easy. Now, when writing game reviews, I feel like I’ve said it all before. The top 10 game journalism cliches captures the challenges game reviewers face. Here is the list along with my comments.

1. Top ten lists: I rarely do this. When I do, the top ten list article comes out at the end of the year. Sites like Mashable often write “## best sites for [enter a topic].” I prefer “## sites for [enter a topic]” because it’s easy to miss deserving candidates.

2. The historical open: This approach gives the writer a nice way to segue into the review. But during these times of information overload, I try to open a review with what it is along with a subtle hint of whether it’s great or blah. What do you want to know when you read a review? For me, I want reviews to tell me what the game, book, or product is about and whether it’s any good.

3. Headlines with a “?” at the end: I don’t have to worry about headlines since all the places I review for just list the game title as in “Diner Dash PC Game Review.” We could argue for and against this method, but it tells you exactly what it is.

4. 7/10 reviews: This would be 4/5 for some of us where ratings use the five point scale instead of 10, but 7/10 appears frequently in working with one client. The local newspaper started adding comments next to the rating such as “two out of five stars (good).” So, two to five stars are positive while one and zero (never happens) stars is negative. That’s no bell curve. It’s as if the newspaper is trying to be gentle and prevent readers from automatically thinking “two stars… don’t go there!” Reviews should be about serving the reader and potential customer, not making nice with the business. Kids today often get a trophy every time they play a sport regardless how their team played. Getting a trophy should make us proud because we earned it not because we signed up and played. How are we going to motivate ourselves to improve?

5. Realistic graphics: No comments on this one.

6. Quirky: Is it good or bad? Exactly the problem.

7. Fans of X will enjoy it: Guilty. I use this line when I don’t have a clever way to end the review.

8. Only time will tell: Pointless. Just give the details now.

9. Reviews broken up into standardized sections: This refers to “graphics,” “sound,” “gameplay,” etc. None of the places I review for use this. They provide a rating. One uses “pros” and “cons,” which gives you a snapshot of what’s good and bad about the game. I think that’s beneficial. Web writing rules apply here — if the review is long, use bold headers every few paragraphs. I rarely do this, though — it just doesn’t work as well for reviews.

10. “Fun.” I try to avoid this like the plague. Considering its synonyms (enjoy, amusing, cool, entertaining, pleasurable) often don’t work well, reviewers sometimes can’t help but use “fun.”

My biggest problem is describing different things such as the graphics and sound. You can only say the same thing so many ways. One thing about reviewing… it offers writers a wonderful way to put their creativity to work. [Link: Gamewire]

Casual Games Slowdown

Notice few exciting games have come out lately? It may be a good thing since the weather is beautiful in many areas of the U.S. and we should be out enjoying it instead of hooked on a game.

Shame on me — I haven’t had the chance to play Dream Chronicles 2. Got busy reviewing other games based on requests from editors and game developers. The weather is just too lovely here in the Dallas area, too. Although, it looks like today is an off weather day, but booked for the day.

Love games — but get fresh air, too, OK? Off to yoga. Namaste.