Welcome to GamerDad: Gaming with Children. My name is Andrew S. Bub - the GamerDad - and I've been writing about videogames, movies, and children for over 15 years now. After working as a magazine journalist, I switched gears to write about how media violence affects children, educating parents about them, and working closely with magazines, newspapers, major retailers and even politicians. GamerDad is an internationally recognized expert in this field. Games, movies and media are fun, kids and families love them, they aren't going away. So join me in cutting through the hype and lets have a real conversation about the things that matter: Video Games, Violent Media, and their supposed effect on children and families.
Welcome to GamerDad: Gaming with Children. My name is Andrew S. Bub - the GamerDad - and I've been writing about videogames, movies, and children for over 15 years now. After working as a magazine journalist, I switched gears to write about how media violence affects children, educating parents about them, and working closely with magazines, newspapers, major retailers and even politicians. GamerDad is an internationally recognized expert in this field. Games, movies and media are fun, kids and families love them, they aren't going away. So join me in cutting through the hype and lets have a real conversation about the things that matter: Video Games, Violent Media, and their supposed effect on children and families.
PAX South 2016: Costumed Crazies!
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Posted on February 5th, 2016 by
At video game and comic book conventions (and even amusement parks nowadays), some people like to dress up as their favorite characters! And PAX South was no exception. So here are a collection of cosplayers that I took pictures of last weekend.
PAX South 2016
Posted on February 4th, 2016 by
The Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX for short, is one of the biggest gaming conventions open to the public. It’s been around for a good while, but at first it was only limited to being in Seattle (I’ve been to quite a few of the Seattle ones). Over the past few years, that’s changed as there have been PAX conventions in Boston and even Australia! And now, for the second year in a row, they had a PAX South convention located in San Antonio, TX last weekend! I live near Dallas, TX, so I attended this one as well as last year’s.
Pac-Man 256 (iOS, Amazon, Google Play)
Posted on February 3rd, 2016 by
Pac-Man 256 is another new free-to-play Pac-Man game, but this one’s actually really good. It’s available for download on iOS, Amazon, and Google Play, but reviewed on iPad here. I believe it was also made by the same folks who did the popular Crossy Road mobile title. So what is the significance of the number 256 and Pac-Man? Well, in the original arcade game, there was a glitch where if you got to maze 256, half of the screen would mess up and make the game unplayable. I guess the makers of Pac-Man didn’t think anyone would get that far! But what if you could try and outrun the glitch before it engulfed the whole maze! Well that’s what Pac-Man 256 is all about!
Unplugged: Runebound, 3rd Edition (Boardgame)
Posted on February 2nd, 2016 by
Boardgames like Runebound pack the positive feedback loop gaining power in MMORPGs into a few short hours of a boardgame. This new (3rd) edition of Runebound provides a new-player friendly boardgame where everyone can choose their own character’s path to power. Players can gain in power by questing to explore locations, interact with the denizens of the land, or simply fight monsters. The first player to become powerful enough to defeat the final villain wins the game. With its open-ended options, playing a game of Runebound gives the enjoyment of adventuring in a MMORPG packed into a single evening of face-to-face game play.
Runebound, 3rd Edtion
Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
Ages: 14+
Players: 2-4
Time: 2-3 hrs
(Review copy provided by Fantasy Flight Games)
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Pac-Man Bounce (iOS, Android)
Posted on February 1st, 2016 by
Pac-Man Bounce is a free-to-play puzzler for iOS and Android (reviewed on iPad here), and it stars the most famous video game character of all time: Pac-Man! In each single screen level, you must get Pac-Man to eat a key, but you don’t control Pac-Man directly. You must manipulate arrows and walls so that Pac-Man will follow and bounce off of them. When you are ready, just tap on Pac-Man and he’ll start moving and hopefully make it to the key so you can progress.
Cary’s Top Ten Mario RPGs
Posted on January 29th, 2016 by
The newest game in the Mario & Luigi RPG series just came out on the 3DS: Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam. It’s a crossover title between Mario & Luigi and the other popular Mario RPG series: Paper Mario. In honor of that, here is a blog where I rank every Mario RPG game in a top ten list (granted there’s only been ten of them, so, yeah).
Minions Paradise (iOS, Android)
Posted on January 27th, 2016 by
One day, all the Minions took a relaxing tropical vacation on a cruise ship. Even accident-prone Phil. Poor Phil. When he mistakenly turns the ship’s helm and steers them right into a rock, all seems lost as the ship sinks. Luckily, Phil finds a deserted tropical island nearby, and all the other Minions survived. But for ruining their fun, they’re not very happy with Phil as they swim to the island. Help Phil get the island ready with lots of fun things to do and make, so the other Minions can still have their tropical vacation! Minions Paradise is available free-to-play to download on iOS and Android devices, but reviewed on iPad here.
Minecraft Story Mode: Episode 3: The Last Place You Look (PS3, PS4, 360, Xbox One, PC, iOS, Android)
Posted on January 25th, 2016 by
Minecraft is an incredibly popular open-world building adventure game with stylishly blocky graphics. It’s become a bit of a phenomenon since its release a few years back, especially with kids. And now, point and click experts TellTale Games has crafted an adventure based on the Minecraft universe called Minecraft: Story Mode. It is split up into five episodes, like most other TellTale titles, and this is a review of the third episode. It’s available for nearly all current home consoles, PCs, and tablets, but reviewed on PS3 here.
The Mini-Games of Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival
Posted on January 22nd, 2016 by
Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival is a Wii U game that came out late last year. It’s a video board game featuring Animal Crossing characters, and you use Animal Crossing Amiibo figures to play it. You must scan them on the Wii U gamepad to roll dice, save your individual progress, heck; you can’t even start the game without first scanning an Amiibo. But there is a little more to it than that. Along with the board game, there is a selection of eight mini-games you can unlock that use the Animal Crossing Amiibo cards that are primarily used in Happy Home Designer. I haven’t read too many reviews online that go over these games in detail, so I’ll do that now since I like covering mini-games.
Unplugged: Musée (Boardgame)
Posted on January 21st, 2016 by
It’s nice when the art of boardgame design meets more traditional art. In Musée, players place art-covered cards into their three-tiered museum, attempting to place similar cards adjacent to each other in order to score points. Simple and fast to play, Musée features more than 60 pieces of wonderful licensed art from the fifteenth to early twentieth century. It is an attractive game appropriate for gamers and non-gamers alike.
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