Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon Wii/DS
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Posted on November 6th, 2008 by
Spyro the cute little purple dragon is back with The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, a 3D game that promises flight, fire, and fearsome foes. Spyro and his friend have to save their world using elemental magic powers and players have to switch between the two characters frequently to get through the game. In what should be a standard feature in every game aimed at families, they offer drop-in cooperative gameplay. Yep, at any time a more (or less) skilled player can drop in to give the youngster a hand and then jump back out again to continue making dinner. Content review comes in Wii and portable DS versions.
GD Keynote: Reviewed Part 2
Posted on November 6th, 2008 by
The American Library Association’s Official Gaming Blog posted a summary review of my keynote: “Andrew Bub, parent and game reviewer and creator of the site Gamer Dad promised that by the end of the session we would all be gamers. He built on comments from our other kyenote speakers: that everytime a new art form enters our media, hysteria ensues. Movies, horror comics, rock & roll, even penny dreadfuls etc. The video game discussion always seems to boil down to violent or catharsis? Perhaps Nintendo did a disservice by promoting the concept that video games are for kids.”GD: Again, thank you kindly ALA – I recommend clicking in. It’s a great summary.
GD Keynote: Reviewed Part 1
Posted on November 6th, 2008 by
Greg Landgraf of the AL Inside Scoop (the blog for the magazine for the American Library Association) reviewed my Keynote at the Gaming Libraries and Learning Symposium:“GamerDad was born of my frustration at what passes for common sense in the media,” explained Bub, particularly in the wake of the Columbine shootings, where the media treated the fact that the shooters played Doom as a cause of their actions, rather than observing that most kids did. GD: Here’s the article. It dramatically shows that I reached them, I think, and maybe taught them a few things about gamers. All in a days work. We’ll have the video soon. Promise! Oh, here’s another review!
Soul Bubbles DS
Posted on November 5th, 2008 by
Soul Bubbles is exclusively sold at Toys R Us, which is shame because the game literally feels like a breath of fresh air (assuming you don’t have halitosis) in that you blow into the microphone to play the game. Soul Bubbles is a gentle game. The protagonist is a strange little cherubic creature who’s job it is to shepherd lost souls to the underworld. The souls are fragile, so he creates bubbles to protect them and guide them through ever-increasingly complex and hazard-ridden mazes. Click here for the content review.
GD Keynote November 4th GLLS08
Posted on November 4th, 2008 by
We’re back! 4 surprisingly warm days in Chicago in an executive suite (got a deal, yay Orbitz), a couples massage, several fine bottles of wine accompanying several excellent meals and we saw a Second City show (that’s the improv troop that most of the classic SNL stars came from). Ah, what a great 10th anniversary with the woman I’m still mad for. Then it was off to Oak Brook to talk to some librarians. How’d it go? Fantastic. Libraries aren’t fond of censorship and they’ve been lending movies and music for long enough that they don’t fear games.
GamerDad Votes ’08
Posted on November 3rd, 2008 by
Politics at GamerDad are never simple. On the Right, you have the Cultural Conservatives, the “Moral Majority” (evangelicals and other people who want to impose “morality” on a society they see as slipping downward). While on the Left we have the “It takes a village” and the “protect the children” crowd (the people who attempt to ban all “play” violence). Both ban videogames for the same reason – violence – differing only in how much language doesn’t bother one side and how much sex does the other. Because of this, I serve both sides and don’t want to alienate either. But Tuesday is important and I have something to say about Barack Obama.
It’s a-me! Trick or Treat!
Posted on October 31st, 2008 by
View from the Vault Part 2: How I stopped worrying and learned to love the game
Posted on October 31st, 2008 by
Wow … my first entry got a lot of attention. While there were only a few comments here, on two different sites the post sprang forth into 4+ page threads. One site is more biased towards ‘next gen’ consoles (i.e. X360 and PS3) and the other one is more biased towards PC gaming. Each one took something different and ran with it … but in neither case was much time spent talking about the actual game. So let’s fix that this time ’round.
Super Smash Brothers: Brawl … with Children
Posted on October 30th, 2008 by
Super Smash Brothers for the Wii is rated E-10 for its cartoon violence but exactly because of that cartoon violence I grabbed it off the shelf. It was a special night last Friday. Maggie and her mom were at the premiere of High School Musical 3 so it was just Henry and I. Oh, and my buddy Zane. Zane’s my gaming friend and he’s stood by me through two hospital emergencies. A good friend. We test split-screen multiplayer on M games for this site, we play Madden, and we rock. Henry usually doesn’t get to play with Zane, so to the boy, this was a special treat. Oh yes, Super Smash Bros. was the perfect choice!
View from the Vault Part: Fallout 3 Impressions Part 1
Posted on October 29th, 2008 by
I think I have already sufficiently established myself as a curmudgeon on many topics but certainly regarding PC gaming: I have railed for years about the impact of consoles on PC gaming (Deus Ex: Invisible War), complain about the state of games that are obvious ports when they do arrive (Oblivion), complain about the generification of genres that has occurred as consoles have led the charge to mainstreaming (again Oblivion), and so on. So I am a perfect candidate for someone to come out and rant about how the newly released Fallout 3 is nothing but ‘Oblivion with guns’ and rant and froth about the history of the franchise and the purity of the RPG genre and … well, just come on in and see … more…
