Have Geek, Will Travel

Well, I’m all packed and awaiting the GenCon bus to whisk me off to Indianapolis. I’m excited to cover the convention and post all the mayhem and craziness that only a bunch of gamers can produce. I’m also excited to try out Picross 3D for the Nintendo DS during my 11 hour car trip. No I’m obviously not driving the whole time. Because that would be dangerous. And hard to do. And I would probably screw up my game.

I don’t think I’ll be able to post while in Indy (I’ve saving up for a shiny new WoW-worthy laptop), but rest assured when I return I will relate all the GenCon goodness, review some games and relate some news, and hopefully have a new pic of Ed Greenwood to add to my collection.

I will leave you with this tiny gem of happiness: if you have Verizon, you  can purchase the Transformers: WFC credits song (which is deliciously old school and awesome) as a ringtone. So you too can have the touch.

LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4: Glitchiaro Fixicus!

When I first heard that the next installment in the popular LEGO game franchise would be none other than Harry Potter, I’m not ashamed to admit that I did a little dance of joy. I’ve been a fan of the LEGO games since Star Wars. I love the tongue-in-cheek approach to the story, the crazy random buildables thrown into the levels, and, come on now, running around as LEGO versions of your favorite characters? That’s just downright awesome.  And LEGO Harry Potter holds a special place in my heart. Yes, I am THAT geek that owns every Harry Potter LEGO set. And at one point had the whole shebang set up in my writing room. I’m talking Hogwarts, the Chamber of Secrets, the Hogwarts Express, the Dursley house, the Shrieking Shack…

It was glorious to behold, I assure you. Sadly, they are in boxes now, waiting for the day I can display them with pride once again.

Yes, I got the collector’s edition. Yes, I have the magnets on my fridge. And yes, I had my little avatar playing with the broomstick. For about a day, til they put the fantasy pets out on Xbox Live. Then I abandoned the broom for a cute lil’ kraken 🙂

The game holds true to the LEGO standard. Not only do you play through specific story levels, but there is also Hogwarts to explore in between levels, where you can learn new spells, make some major moola, and collect the red bricks and gold bricks essential for 100% completion of the game (and some gamer points to boot). I enjoyed tearing my way through the castle, shooting things willy-nilly with my wand and specific spells. I like the idea of being able to find the icons of unlockable characters, though most of the student icons really look the same, just different color ties (which you can barely see) and different hairdos.

The major problem I had with this game came when I was in the middle of Year Two, in the fourth story level (Tom Riddle’s Diary). I ended up having to exit out of the level because I got my rambunctious Harry caught in a corner I couldn’t escape. Once I left the level the game continued me on. I didn’t think anything of it until I was nearly done with the whole thing. I looked at the boards for all the levels, and noticed that 2-4 was missing. After doing a little research online, I discovered that this was a major glitch in the game–if you left midway through the level (not sure if this is true for all levels or just 2-4), you could never get back to it. No 100% completion, no gold brick, nothing. You were SOL. And there was no was to fix it, other than going back to the beginning and starting over.

Wow.

So here I am now, blitzing through LEGO blocks like some kind of Panzer tank, just so I can finish the damn thing. I’m also playing with all multipliers on, just for kicks. So far I have over 4,000,000,000 coins. Yeah, that’s right. Who’s a billionaire?!

All in all, if you are a fan of the Harry Potter series, or a fan of LEGO, or both, this game brings hours of enjoyment and lends itself well to playing co-op for extra fun. Just be careful of the snags; there are apparently several little glitches in the game, including inescapable rooms and invisible gold bricks. Too bad they didn’t make a spell to fix them all.

<waves her wand> Patchicus!

The Tentative First Steps

This marks a new path for me, one that I’ve been contemplating for quite a while now. I will fully admit that I have struggled with severe writer’s block for at least a year or more, and that simply will not do. I don’t feel like I can call myself a writer, when I’m not writing ANYTHING. So this blog, in theory, should ease me back in to the hot throes of writing. Right?

It’ll be an adventure, at least.

So, welcome to my experiment in fighting writer’s block. My weapon of choice to bring the joy back into sitting in front of the keyboard? Ranting and opinionating about the things that bring me joy. Mainly gaming. Though I’m currently an Xbox girl, I certainly don’t limit gaming to my beloved console. This includes other consoles (sorry PS3, I can’t include you yet, though I would love to), PC gaming (ok, by this I really mean WoW), board games, and other ventures into competition, survival and escapism. Occasionally I’ll toss in a movie review, book question or other such geek nonsense, just to spice it up. Whatever makes me happy, will maybe make you happy too. Or at least pique your interest.

Come along with me, into the belly of the beast.