Momgamer’s Games of the Year – Runner Up Edition
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Posted on January 21st, 2008 by
I didn’t want to just list off the five games that are at the top of all the game site lists. Yes, Bioshock is amazing. But everyone else already told you that. Gaming’s a lot bigger and more diverse than you might imagine. I’m going to go off the beaten path here a bit and come up with a few games that hit the sweet spot at my house over the course of the year.
Since my household runs older than many here, we’re going to have more to say about the higher ratings. I broke them out by Gamerdad Seal of Approval categories, with the hardware platform and the ESRB rating provided for your information.
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Video games have come a long way in their 30 some odd year history. Blocky pixels have been replaced with smooth, 3-D polygons. Controlling your character has gone from one joystick and one button to actually moving the whole controller yourself. And what was jarring bleeps and bloops is now sweeping musical scores worthy of an orchestral soundtrack. And now, finally, people can enjoy their favorite video game songs played by a real orchestra with Play! A Video Game Symphony.
I’m a football fan who was born in Wisconsin. I grew up where the Steelers, then Bears, then Rams (well, once), then Niners play their games but in the back of my mind I was a Packer fan. The story of Lambeau, Lombardi, Starr, Neitzche, McGee, and the rest was known to me and I always cringed when people made fun of the hapless Pack. I didn’t watch a lot of football as a result. The one-two-punch of Football videogaming (it was Real Talk Joe Montana for Genesis if you must know) and the Forty-Niners winning the Superbowl while I was in SF and in college made me a fan again. Moving to Wisconsin in 1995 – just as White, Holmgren and Favre were getting started – made the Packers my obsession. Madden, year-after-year made me a fan of the game itself.
..will be a lot less entertaining than 
Jocelyn loves video games. She also loves to bake. Combine the two, and you have 
MSNBC has posted a well researched and well-written article about a topic close to my heart lo these past 5 years and that’s the benefits of gaming with children. The article quotes several families who do this. There’s a dissenter or two and the article ends inconclusively (which is just good journalism). It reminds me of that poll AOL did recently where one parents claimed that its a “waste of time” – See I’d argue ANYTHING you do with your kids is never a waste of time and I feel sorry for that guy’s kid. Anyway, come on in to find a link to the article and my main beef with it. (Illustration by Duane Hoffman, reproduced here for commentary)
it. Take Colleen Hannon’s. She’s our MomGamer (no relation) and she cuts right through the garbage. 
So, did you drink the Kool-Aid this afternoon? I spend my seemingly annual ‘lunch hour in front of the computer’ checking out whatever Steve Jobs had to offer, and there was some pretty interesting stuff regardless of what segment of the electronic entertainment industry gets your blood flowing.
