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.
Game Review: Lode Runner (Xbox LIVE)
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Posted on September 13th, 2009 by
Flash back to, oh, 1983 or so. I was only like, in kindergarten or first grade, and we just got our very first home computer: the Apple ][+ (you know I’m hardcore because I used brackets). I used the computer mostly to play games, in fact, you could say it was my first ‘gaming console.’ I was playing near arcade perfect versions of Pac-Man while everyone else was cursing the poor port on the Atari 2600. Anyway, while my two favorite Apple ][+ games were Aquatron and Spare Change, another game that grabbed my interest a lot was Lode Runner. It looked like Donkey Kong, had Pac-Man-like run and chase gameplay (I thought the ‘gold’ you collected looked like hamburgers), and had some puzzle elements, too. Now, 25 years later, you can play a new updated version of Lode Runner on Xbox LIVE. And for the week of September 14, it’s available on sale for only 800 MS Points!
Game Review: Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii)
Posted on September 12th, 2009 by
A young ninja in search of the ultimate blade. A princess possessed by an evil demon. Play as both in this brilliantly stylized 2-D hack and slash adventure. Muramasa: The Demon Blade is definitely a great reason to own a Wii.
My Family With the Beatles at iVillage
Posted on September 11th, 2009 by
My family has taken to Beatles Rock Band in a special way. Linda especially. I think it has a lot to do with the music. Everything is familiar, most of it is beloved and my kids know most of the words already. I was lucky enough to get to write about why this is and its something I did that I recommend every parent do. iVillage (a horde of moms in one place) published my article and, hopefully, it’ll inspire some of them – and you – to retire the Kidz Bop forever. The Beatles – with a love like that, any parent should be glad!
Game Review: R-Type: Dimensions (Xbox LIVE)
Posted on September 10th, 2009 by
Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s, shoot ‘em ups were a dime a dozen in the arcades. But R-Type stood out from the rest with its graphical prowess, huge bosses, relentless challenge, and unique power-ups. Now you can enjoy R-Type and R-Type II in one package on Xbox LIVE with graphical upgrades or original visuals.
Batman vs. LEGO Batman
Posted on September 9th, 2009 by
As everyone should know by now Batman: Arkham Asylum has entered my “Best Games Ever” like a bullet – or like a more Batarang appropriate projectile. I love every inch of it, including the challenges and feel the game is vindication of the very idea that Writing and Voice matter so much more than Game Developers THINK it does. Scary stuff – quality – Rated Teen. Nice! And Lately I’ve been playing LEGO Batman with my son. Good teamwork, good fun, but I realized something – LEGO Batman is a million times more challenging that Arkham Asylum! Isn’t that weird? I think I’ve figured out why:
PAX-Man 2: The New Adventures
Posted on September 8th, 2009 by
The Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX for short, is a huge video game convention in Seattle spearheaded by the guys who do the prolific Penny Arcade web comic. PAX 09 was this past Labor Day weekend, and I was lucky enough to get a chance to go to it. Read on and join me on my PAX ‘09 adventures!
Book Review: The Dragon Codex Series
Posted on September 5th, 2009 by
In the past few years, the folks who make the Dungeons and Dragons role playing game have made a big effort to be more family friendly, trying to expose kids who have a natural love of fantasy and imagination to the rich tapestry of story that makes up the various parts of the Dungeon and Dragons mythos. Not immune to the lure of the very hot realm of preteen fiction, they have put together their own publishing line entitled Mirrorstone books. Two of the main series are the Practical Guide Series and the Dragon Codex Series. The Practical Guides are almost coffee table books for kids with rich, colorful illustrations and entertaining text on the topic of dragons, fairies, monsters and the like. The Dragon Codex series takes a more traditional route and is a series of young adult novels all tied to a particular color of dragon (in the D&D universe basic colored dragons like red or blue tend to be bad while metallic colored dragons like copper or gold tend to be good). All the codex books are fairly good reads, age-appropriate with a couple minor exceptions. They take advantage of the rich history of the D&D Dragonlance universe to provide stories about young teens having adventures in a world with a rich, diverse history. Each book is independent of the others, although if they are read in series there are occasional nods to occurrences to things that happened in previous books. Here are my thoughts on the books in the series so far.
Game Review: Lego Battles (DS)
Posted on September 4th, 2009 by
Nearly every child has whiled away some time playing with those ubiquitous building blocks, Legos. Whether through luck or planning, Lego has managed to also make a name for itself in the video game market, with dual licensed games such as Lego Star Wars and Lego Batman that are fun to play by kids and parents alike. Striking off on their own, Lego has entered the real-time strategy market with the Nintendo DS title, Lego Battles. It has much of the expected Lego charm and is a solid title, but due to its appeal to the younger set, it will not appeal to the typical hardcore real-time strategy gamer.
Doldrums – What are you Playing?
Posted on September 3rd, 2009 by
I’ve finished Batman and slated it for another playthrough (a rear thing for me) on Hard, sometime in the future. Beatles Rock Band is due in these parts today or tomorrow, but other than that I’m kind of at a loss game-wise. Wolfenstein lost my interest due to generic gameplay and poor pacing sometime back and I decided that Battlefield 1943 (an awesome download) just wasn’t fun using a console controller. What I really mean to say here is that back in the PC BF1942 I was a deadshot on Wake Island – on the 360 I wonder how the heck people can hit me so consistently. Of course, the coming PC version might just prove I’ve totally lost my touch. A real possibility at 38. So, what to play?
State of the Heart – 2 years Ago
Posted on September 2nd, 2009 by
Two years ago today I felt a little off. I did some gardening, kissed my kids as they went to a sleepover at a friends house and had a nice dinner with my wife. I started feeling a little chest pain – right side, like heart burn or a stomach ailment – but otherwise okay. Linda went to bed, I went to play video games, for the life of me I can’t remember what game it was. After an hour or so I woke Linda up, the pain was worse, but it still felt stomach related so she authorized me a second pill (Prilosec) and went back to sleep. I took a shower to help defer the discomfort and went back downstairs where – unbelievably to me now – I had a cigarette.
