Gaming | lynette {radio}

A Kingdom for Keflings

November 25, 2008 by Lynette ·

Welcome to my new gaming addiction. No surprise that my family is a family of hardcore geeks. We must own 12 (working) computers, a graveyard of parts, 3 game consoles and about 30 board games, including my favorite, Trailer Park Wars. The XBOX was my birthday present this year along with a pink wireless controller. After putting the kids to bed I search out a drink and kick my husband back into his office. Or let him fall asleep on the couch watching me play, because, well, if you’re not playing, it’s pretty damn boring.

The “new XBOX experience” upgrade gives us Wii-style avatars that you can customize. (I’m an old pro since Second Life has been providing me unlimited abilities to customize my look for years now.) With the new custom avatars on XBOX, a new downloadable game became available, Kingdom for Keflings a mere 800 Microsoft Points ($10). It’s a mix between Wii My Sims and maybe SimCity, with a touch of Godzilla (you are a giant after all). The object of the game is to build a castle. To do this you construct buildings and balance resources. The game is so new, or possibly so unpopular, that there really aren’t any walkthroughs out yet giving hints on how to best go about mapping out your little Kefling city. So I decided to start mapping out all the game objects you need to get a castle built and put it up on a Google Doc. Wow, did I just do that? Once I go through the game to the end, I’ll go back and start a new game using my own strategy and see how it goes.

Yes, there are plenty of other constructive uses of my time. I have a ton of other things to do with my life. But my brain is fried from being a mom, and I am in desperate need of a mental break. Since I have a need to juggle as many things as humanly possible at one time, this game makes perfect sense to me (having to make sure every little worker is busy being productive and reallocating resources as needed, without the help of some cheater status box).

The only thing I need now is a XBOX Live Gold account so I can play online with other people and not be so isolated online all the time!

[tags]xbox, keflings, kingdom for keflings, wii[/tags]

Filed Under: gaming, stuff i felt like saying Tagged With: gaming, XBOX 360

Leapfrog 2.0

November 7, 2008 by Lynette ·

I call it this because I’ve been a Leapfrog fan since my daughter was a baby (and she’s now 7), and now we are again a Leapfrog family with our second child. Some of the only toys we saved from my daughters babyhood are Leapfrog toys – now passed on to her little brother. My favorite is the drum from about 8 years ago – bang it and it counts and sing the alphabet song. The new and improved version does colors and Spanish, so I can see already the progress and thought they have put into the products over the past few years. When I started reading up that Leapfrog not only had ‘baby toys’ but items that would be great for her now and through middle school I was thrilled.

What I’m really impressed with is their leap (sorry, couldn’t resist) into the online world called Leapfrog Learning Path. We are a high-tech, geeky family and our kids are the same. I am very impressed with the amount of data that gets synchronized between the gadgets and the Learning Path for parents to track. One thing I haven’t found yet (or maybe it doesn’t exist yet) is a way to print some sort of report so I could show my daughter’s teacher. Being that my daughter reads at 4 levels above her grade, but is about average in her grade for math, tracking this is very beneficial to us. Having her sit at the kitchen table and do ‘extra’ math problems to strengthen her skills is *boring* but playing a game is *fun*.

Leapfrog was kind enough to give us a pink Digj to try out. There were extra games available at the seminar to take, but some of the moms loaded up for their kids – so my daughter will have to wait until Christmas to get any extra games for the system and really see how well it works. It’s hard to give an honest review and feel for the product with only the built-in game, so if you plan on purchasing one, be sure to pick up a few games right away for the system. I’ve seen bundled packs available in the stores already. [Read more...]

Filed Under: gaming, mom stuff, NJ Moms Blog Tagged With: leapfrog, swag

Jordan Pruitt at the ZwinkyCuties.com Launch

September 16, 2008 by Lynette ·

Just wanted to put up one of the videos that I’ve uploaded already from the Jordan Pruitt / ZwinkyCuties.com launch that I took my daughter in New York City.

We’ve been on Zwinky Cuties for about a week now, and although it has a lot of room to grow as far as content, she and I both think it’s a really good setup for girls her age (it’s designed for girls 6-12). Anyhow, being that I pretty much had the baby on my lap or in my arms for a good part of the trip into the city, I’m exhausted! Just wanted to get a quick video up while I sit and watch my husband geek out and play Star Wars Force Unleashed. I’d be playing too but I’m too tired to think about kicking his butt on the XBOX.

PS – The release party had an incredible spread of things that pre-tween girls love … pastel cupcakes, brownies, cookies with the Zwinky Cuties characters, cotton candy and popcorn. I caved a bit on my diet and ate a brownie and the remainder of a cupcake Kidlette had licked the icing off. So at least I saved the calories from lavender frosting.