Geek Woman Speaks

All Hail the Prince of Darkness

geek-woman — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 07:01:11 +0000

Nancy Drew Lights, Camera, Curses! PC Review

geek-woman — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:41:12 +0000

Most TV game franchises brand their property all over the market. They will put the game on every handheld device, phone and toilet paper dispenser. Her Interactive the makers of the Nancy Drew series have taken their stamp to another type of video game. Previously they released about twenty point and click adventures, like the last one I reviewed before Halloween. Those were usually good to excellent and got better than average scores. Those all moved along and had fair to good animations and graphics.

The new Nancy Drew Dossier series is somewhat retro. We are waiting for the Wii version of White Wolf of Icicle Creek that is due on December 2. It could be merely a port from PC to console though. The Dossier series premier goes after the PC download market instead of progressing the franchise to 3D and taking it anywhere forward. (more…)

Game Industry Guys Put Foot in Mouth Again

geek-woman — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:36:49 +0000

“What were they thinking?” You may ask, of two men in the games industry who have made some very insulting comments about women. How low can they go? CliffyB was giving an interview when he came out with some things that you’d only expect two half shit-faced guys to say to each other in private. But no, this was not private it was to a journalist.

He certainly wasn’t thinking of the fourty something percent share of his games that are purchased by a female.

Speaking with GamePro, Gears of War and Halo series creator Cliff Bleszinski explained his thoughts on Beta tests and spoke about his reluctance to offer Beta tests of his games.

A beta is like hooking up with a girl just to say, “yeah, I fucked her.” I know that sounds crude, but it’s the honest-to-God truth. Once you play a beta, you can check it off your list–you can say, “yeah, I played it.” Then you might not feel motivated to get that initial cherry popping from the proper, final game. (more…)

Obsolete, Old School or Retro?

geek-woman — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:32:39 +0000

The time of year has arrived where I am thinking about what to unload in the “stuff market”. This year I began to contemplate “How do I know what is Obsolete, Old School or Retro?” There are websites like about.com that can help you evaluate your old electronics, and collectibles some charge for the service. Your library will also have books which give the values of antiques which are updated every year, and that’s free. In a box, is the second Panasonic Home Theater System in as many years that has crapped out due to built in obsolescence. My cell does a camera’s job, the job of the landline phone, and the old laptop that I just packed. Those are going into the attic next to the Atari 2600.

The quality that inspires us to chuck some stuff and hoard others may tell us something about our individuality and character. As we jet faster towards the future with each passing day I imagine that like the crew on the Enterprise we will eventually become a “stuff-less” society. All of our important music, literature and movies will simply be known as our “data”. There may be more creative ways for our data to be presented such as the Data Ring, or even more imaginative jewels like a diamond pendant etched with keys to our personal storage. This bank of data will be a log of our lives from the first time we can read and interface until we terminate. (more…)

The Agency Female Team Interview

geek-woman — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:01:32 +0000

Geek Woman gets the chance to interview three of ladies who are on the team of The Agency which is a soon to be released MMO from SOE.

Tracy A. Seamster Game Designer, The Agency Sony Online Entertainment Seattle

1. Geek Woman : As a Game Designer/Writer on The Agency™ team are you in charge of creating the missions or quests in the game?

Tracy : While I sit in on meetings regarding various missions for The Agency, I am currently working on our Operatives. As an agent, you collect non-player characters who work for you. You build your own agency in this game, and Operatives are the “living loot” you put it together with. They’ll work for you whether you are logged in or not—analyzing intel, building gadgets, running stakeouts and other kinds of spy things. I give them stories to live out, future potential assignments, as well as back stories that may offer insight into who they are and where they’ve come from. We have over four hundred Operatives and they need to be as diverse as possible so that they can have interesting interactions while remaining true to their ParaGON or UNITE ties. (more…)

Senator Tries New Net Neutrality Law

geek-woman — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:01:44 +0000

He may be no where nearly as hot as Tania Derveaux but Sen. Byron Dorgan a Democrat from North Dakota has plans to introduce a bill to require net neutrality. This has come as a reaction to the recent situation when the Federal Communications Commission ruled against Comcast. The new bill called the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, would attempt to bar cable and other internet providers from being internet “gatekeepers”. His bill will be introduced in January to prevent the blocking and managing of internet content.
Dorgan, has introduced previous bills on net neutrality. Dorgan has been outspoken on the issue, saying ISPs such as Comcast, AT&T Relevant Products/Services and Verizon Communications are trying to block or manage what has always been a free Internet. What these giants propose to do is to make some of us second class internet citizens. A managed internet could be dangerous for free speech and would prohibit innovation. Once again allowing giants to overpower smaller businesses.

In April after it was announced that the FCC had convicted Comcast of shenenigans Tania Derveaux made her historic offer to have sex with all virgins who support internet neutrality in their blogs.

“Net neutrality is paramount to safeguard free speech and innovation on the Internet,” Tania’s statement continues. “With only one arguably negative side-effect: an unusual amount of today’s Internet users are virgin (sic). That’s a problem I intend to solve. In history, man has always waged war for freedom. Now it’s time to obtain our freedom with love.”

Spike TV 2008 “Video Game Awards”

geek-woman — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:00:16 +0000

Spike TV has announced the 2008 “Video Game Awards” show. The sixth annual “VGAs” will bring together stars from video games, Hollywood, music, sports and more to celebrate the outstanding achievements within the video game industry over the past year. The 2-hour show will be LIVE on Spike TV Sunday, December 14 at 9:00pm, ET/PT (tape delay west coast) from Sony Picture Studios in Culver City, CA. (more…)

My Japanese Coach DS Review

geek-woman — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:14:51 +0000

Finally My Japanese Coach DS is here! Since I became a Reiki Master in 1998 I also became a Japan-ophile. Or an Otaku. I am crazy for all things Japanese. I began to attempt to learn the language. It was a daunting task trying to do it all alone. I’ve tried audio language lessons on CD’s, online lessons, made my own flash cards, and I have several books that promised that I would “read Japanese in a matter of hours” yeah right. I think what was missing in all those cases was cohesion between the written and spoken language. Another problem is that when you memorize Kanji symbols, you’ll learn a meaning for the character, but then you need to know how to pronounce it and spell it out phonetically with Kana in order to really get the whole picture. Though I can kind of understand my animes without the subtitles, I often wonder if I am only remembering it from reading the manga or if I am actually absorbing it.

This wonderful learning tool on the DS My Japanese Coach, puts it all together in one neat compact place. And I’ll tell you right now Gamefly is not getting this one back from me. This is the first Japanese learning tool that has made a difference for me. With it on the DS you get that companionable feeling as if a little friend is casually teaching you the language.

It begins with a placement test when you set up your profile and there is room for data for three people to learn on one cartridge. Or you can use it to retest yourself from time to time. I won’t lie. I scored “Baby” on my first time through. I knew almost as much as a kindergardener in Japan from my previous false starts. What is different about this from those dreaded language lessons in high school is that this seems easy. It is mixed with games and lessons which is what Nintendo does best. You are given separate lessons modes for reading speaking and writing the language as you go along. (more…)

The Things That We Were Promised for November

geek-woman — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:27:20 +0000

Earlier this year we were promised that many good things would be coming in November. Two of them are long awaited upgrades to our game consoles. Sony promised Home. And Microsoft promised The New Xbox Live Experience. But where are they?

Sony has been conducting mysterious closed Beta tests of Home for what seems like at least two years. Occasionally they would cheerfully announce that some ‘lucky’ persons would be admitted into it. But that hasn’t always proved to be true either. Not too long ago Sony came out saying that the November issue of Qore “interactive magazine” would include an invite into the Home closed beta for both annual Qore subscribers, and one-time purchasers. However a few days later Joystiq reported that those who purchased Episode 6 of Qore were not getting those beta invites which were apparently only being sent to one year subscribers who signed up before Oct. 29, as opposed to what had been said earlier.

Then there was that statement by Sony saying that those who downloaded the Home Theme from the Play-station Store would have a chance of getting into the beta. But this time guess what, Sony has sent out beta keys via email to some of the people who got that theme. The background itself is very dull looking with only its blue logo on it. I was suspicious so I downloaded it in case something like this came up. I haven’t gotten the precious email yet. The closed beta has been going on for some time and PS3 owners have been restless. Who knows it could be finally starting to move towards a release date. (more…)

Bioshock PS3 Review

geek-woman — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:03:50 +0000

I chose to wait for Bioshock to come to the PS3 so that I could check out the hyped visuals on the TV screen instead of my laptop. It wasn’t easy avoiding the spoilers, controversy and enthusiasm for a year. Now that we have been playing it, the game delves deeply not only into new waters in the game industry and history but is opens flood gates into the one’s consciousness. Perhaps unlike most recent games the story telling goes beyond a fantasy into philosophy and ethics. No doubt the developers, taking into account the roaring arguments of pundits about the dangers of video games, and the lack of art in them, produced something that is both visually amazing and intellectually challenging. Any serious gamer should check out Bioshock. It is not for the faint of heart or those who can’t handle moderate to intense graphic horror and gore which is a downside to reaching more gamers who could have enjoyed this game.

Now more than ever when the needs for financial and social consciousness have been vindicated in reality, the themes of Bioshock are even more compelling. Ayn Rand’s objectivism philosophy impresses me as Jean Paul Sartre’s existentialism taken up a notch. While existentialism is a philosophy of “no gods or kings”, objectivism appears to be the practice of it. Over the past few months we have experienced an objectivist scenario in real life. In the eight years of the Bush administration, the objectivist styled neo conservatives wet dream has funded a massive military industrial complex, set to run on with out the constraints of any regulation. The barriers that were in place to protect the economy and the workers who generate it were taken away through the gradual and insidious work of the Reagan and Bush administrations. What began in the 1940’s only took seven years to tumble Wall Street down. An objectivist type philosophy that pooled power and wealth for a thin strata of one percent of the population has caused the whole ship of industry to capsize. (more…)