Posts Tagged game

The Biggest Loser Wii – Night One

Posted by Matt Kendrick on Thursday, 7 January, 2010

One word “Exhausted.” It best describes how I’m feeling right now. Last night was the first night of The Bigggest Loser Wii Game at our place. I started a new profile on the game labeled “Matt” and input my age, height and weight. Then I chose my trainer (Jillian), I think she’s very tough on the contestants. Then I selected a four week training plan as a beginner. In this time period I’m aiming to lose at least 10 pounds. Little goals at first and then I’ll work my way up.

After I got my profile out of the way, I decided to do the warm-up. The warm-up did a great job of preparing me for exercise. It’s basically a six minute series of stretching and loosening exercises. At first I wasn’t going to do it. But then I remembered the importance of stretching from high school PE class. Most of the stuff I did during this phase was very basic. It reminded me a lot of what was taught in high school PE and health class. I was very glad that I did the warm-up. Because nothing else could have prepared me better for the next thirty minutes.

Moving on to the main exercise. At first I was like “Yea, this isn’t much different than Wii Fit.” Then I realized it was nothing like Wii Fit. The exercises are completely planned out in circuits. My character on the screen worked outwith me, right along side Jillian. They showed me everything for a few brief seconds and then kicked up. Literally. Each circuit began with marches to get your heart rate up. Then we did squats with kicks exercises. Not to mention round-house kicks. The hardest for me, were the floor exercises. They were very simple, lay on your back and lift your butt up. Some of the exercises reminded me much of Tae Bo, mainly the kicking and squats. I would start to slow down, only to get harassed by Jillian (just like the show). Near the end, my lower back kept hurting. But the short breaks between circuits helped out.

After the 30 minute main exercise, I moved on to the cool down stage. Again at first I didn’t think it was that important. I just wanted to go sit down on the couch and just crash. But I found the post-exercise stretching incredible. Some of my aches and pains went away. It really did cool me down. I was sweating like I’ve sweat before. Ok, I know that sounds gross. But you get the picture.

I enjoy the constant feedback from the game. I like how Virtual Jillan and Bob provide feedback the whole way. Based off your inputs through the Wii controls, it has a sense if you’re doing it right or not. It’s almost like they’re playing bad cop/good cop. One minute Jillian will knock ya down and then Bob will pick ya up. They encourage you to drink water during your breaks. I thought was very informative. A lot of people forget to drink water while exercises. It’s very easy to get caught up in working out, forget to drink water and then get dehydrated. The plans are customizable. But I’ve decided to see how the basic program works first. Keep in mind, I have little workout training experience beyond Wii Fit, walking, jogging and running for exercise. So you could say, I’m learning as I go. I’ll post up more in later posts and keep you informed on how it’s going.

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Flash Game: Etch A Sketch

Posted by Matt Kendrick on Wednesday, 2 December, 2009

Two flash games in a week? Yea I know its odd. But I got thinking about some holiday movies today. I remembered in the movie Elf, where Buddy the Elf (played by Will Ferrel) was having trouble putting together Etch A Sketches.

Elf: It’s okay, Buddy. Just how many Etch-A-Sketches did you make?
Buddy: I made… 85.
Elf: 85. Well, that puts you… 915 off the pace.
Buddy: Why don’t you just say it? I’m the worst toy-maker in the world. I’m a Cotton-Headed Ninnymuggins!

Poor Buddy. Anyways. I’ve been working on learning Flash Actionscript programming. I should have some examples up later this week. I’ve been working towards to making a doodle pad. Exciting stuff! Till then have fun playing with the Etch A Sketch.



Get more games like this at ArcadeZip!

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Flash Games: Snow Day

Posted by Matt Kendrick on Sunday, 29 November, 2009

Winter/Holidays are closing in quickly. Thought I would throw up a winter/holiday theme flash game! Remember when you were a kid sitting by the radio waiting for your school to be called off for snow? I know I do. Sometimes I still listen for school closings. In this flash game you play a kid, longing for that perfect snow day! Your objective is to throw ice up into the clouds, to make them snow. Kinda like giving them a shot of turbo lax! Ok, bad reference. Unless you’ve seen Dumb and Dumber. But anyways. Very simple to play, hours to master. Move your character back and forth to aim, click/hold to set the power of your throw and release. Keep hitting clouds with ice and the snow will continue to fall. A meter on the side, tells you if you’re getting in danger of having to go school. Have fun!

Snow Day Screenshot

Click to Play the Game

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Classic Games: Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego

Posted by Matt Kendrick on Saturday, 3 October, 2009

Carmen Screenshot Years ago back in elementary school I can remember spending breaks during class playing Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. Next to Oregon Trail and Math Blaster Plus, this was one of the greatest educational games ever made. What started as a video game to help teach people about geography, spawned into the longest running tv game show on PBS. I can also remember rushing home to watch the show after school. This was only after watching the now defunct, Reading Rainbow of course. Yes I was a bit of a geek. My wife reminds me daily that I still am. But anyways back to Carmen Sandiego.

The game puts you in the role of a gumshoe detective. Your job is to travel around the world looking for clues to help solve a case. You must complete a warrant for an arrest and proceed to follow that person across the globe. Once at the final destination you will watch an animated cop chase. Then listen for the musical foreshadowing  to tell if you’ve won your case.

After so many successful cases you will be given a chance to answer questions. These questions require research. The game says you can find the answers in a World Almanac. My wife and I felt like it was a ploy to sell more of these fact books. If you do not have a World Almanac, the answers are easily found on Wikipedia. After successfully answering the questions you are promoted. After a number of cases you will answer another question and be promoted again. Once you’ve solved enough cases and have been promoted a few times, you’ll get your chance to capture Carmen Sandiego.

A few weeks ago my wife and I played the game for the first time in over a decade. I found it online through an abandonware site called Abandonia. At first we just played around with it. But then we were sucked in all over again. We felt the need to play through and find Carmen Sandiego. A few hours later we captured Carmen Sandiego. However the ending to game was not as glamorous as we remember.

When capturing Carmen Sandiego (at least on the older versions of the game) you only get your name on a Hall of Fame list. Big deal right? You don’t even see a picture of the captured boss character. In fact the only picture of her, are in the dossiers files. Granted I know this is an old  game, but they could have made something special out of defeating the main boss. Oh well. But we still had fun and there was some teamwork at play.

Now it’s your turn to find Carmen Sandiego and get your name on the Hall of Fame. You can check it out on Abandonia’s website or download it for yourself below. I’ve posted the DOS version of the game. You will need to find a DOS emulator to properly run this game. I recommend DosBox. Have fun!

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego (DOS) (605)
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Can You Run It?

Posted by Matt Kendrick on Sunday, 9 August, 2009

Have you ever gotten excited about a new PC game coming out? You ran right out and bought it as soon at it hit store shelves? Did the excitement wear off as soon as you found out your PC doesn’t meet the hardware requirements? Sad, I know. I’ve bought games before without paying close attention to the hardware requirements before. It’s one of the last things you expect.

Well life got a little easier with a free utility that can tell you if your machine is up to snuff for the latest games. It’s called “Can You Run It?” Very simple to use. Just go to the “Can You Run It?” website and select the game you want to check for. The application will then inspect your hardware and give you a report of it’s findings. You may find that you just need to upgrade your video card or add ram. However some games tend to overrate the requirements.

New games come out every few weeks. It is amazing how much push there is for new hardware. What’s hot today is not tomorrow. Gaming is not the cheapest hobby out there. But it can be a lot of fun. As they say at the end of every GI Joe cartoon “Now you know and knowing is half the battle.”

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com

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Team Fortress 2 – The Pen and Paper RPG

Posted by Matt Kendrick on Monday, 6 July, 2009

First, I’m a big fan of the first person shooter Team Fortness 2. Digg’n around this morning and found where two guys ([TPG] Deadshot, [TPG] Wade Wilson) are working on a pen and paper RPG version of the game. The cool thing is, you only need the sheets they’ve created, dice and a pencil to play. Great for those times when the power goes out and you’re wanting to game! Also no first person shooter skills required. Anyways, I thought it was a pretty neat project. Looks like it’s still a work in progress. But you can check it out on their blog at http://tf2rpg.blogspot.com/.


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Battlefield Heroes

Posted by Matt Kendrick on Tuesday, 30 June, 2009

EA has released Battlefield Heroes. Now it’s out of the beta testing stage. From the screen shots and trailers it looks a lot like Valve’s Team Fortress 2. Really looking forward to playing the game and doing a full review on it. I think it’s a neat idea to be able to release a commercial game for free. Who cares if there are a few ADs to look at. However I still can’t download it. Their servers are bogged down with the increased load. For now I’ll post up the trailer.

Battlefield Heroes


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Flash Games: Park A Lot 2

Posted by Matt Kendrick on Thursday, 18 June, 2009

Flash parking games are fun and challenging. However the “Park-A-Lot” series adds an additional twist to the traditional parking games. In this game you play a valet parking attendant. Your job is to take the customer’s car and park it in the spot they tell you to.Then when their ready to leave, you retrieve the car. Not bad, but try doing this when you’ve got a steady stream of customers coming and going. Very easy to get confused as to which customer has what car.

I’ve embedded “Park A Lot 2″ for you to try out. You’ll find your self quickly addicted. My advice is to yell out the parking assignments has they happen. Makes it easier to remember what car goes with which customer. Feel free to post how well ya did in the comments! You can also check out the original “Park A Lot” at http://www.miniclip.com/games/park-a-lot/en/.


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Ghostbusters Video Game Out Today

Posted by Matt Kendrick on Tuesday, 16 June, 2009

Ghostbusters Screenshot XBOX 360

Whooo ya gonna call? Ghostbusters of course! 25 years ago Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis showed audiences how to battle ghost in New York City. Now’s your chance to take on some super natural forces in the new Ghostbusters video game.

The plot of the game takes place two years after the second movie. Basically it’s Ghostbusters 3. However, to see the whole story unfold you will have to play the game. But what could be cooler then strapping on a proton back, hitching a ride in the Echo, and kicking some ghost butt? The Wii version should have some interesting methods of game play. However, players on the Wii and DS will not get the same graphic level experience. The graphics for the Wii and DS look much like characters from Valve’s Team Fortress 2.

I haven’t made up my mind if I’m going to buy this one. My wife asked me if I wanted it as an anniversary present. Since I don’t have a XBOX 360 or play games of this genre on PC, I opted out for the Sims 3 instead. I know I’m a trader. However my friend Dave Poff and I have plans to rent and complete the game sometime soon. Possibly rent and complete again on the Wii! Till then, remember “Don’t cross the streams!”

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How to Backup Sims 3 Game Data

Posted by Matt Kendrick on Monday, 8 June, 2009

Sims 3 Logo

Ah snap I didn’t backup!

This past weekend my wife and I picked up the Sims 3 as an anniversary present. Soon as we got home Saturday night, I went ahead and installed it. Most of the day Sunday, we played the game. Our friends Catie and David came over for some pizza and wanted to see our progress on the game. So I clicked the game icon and nothing happened. Then my machine decided to lock up. So I figured I would reboot. After reset, it didn’t boot into Windows. The first thing that came to my mind was I didn’t backup my saved game data. So I began poking around the file system looking for the same game data.

What do I need to backup?

You’ll want to backup your characters, neighborhood and lots. In previous versions of the game, it stored the data with the program files itself. With the Sims 3, it stores everything in the current user’s profile (Documents and Settings). I like this, it makes it really easy to find the data. Also if you share your PC with other family members you can keep your saved game separate with your own profile/login.

How do I back it up?

So how do you back it up? Simple, just open up My Documents, then open the “Electronic Arts” folder, then right click the “Sims 3″ folder and click copy. Browse to where you want to backup your Sims 3 data and right click and choose paste. This will backup all player data for your system account.

Where should I backup to?

You could use any usb drive. I recomend the San Disk Cruzer
series. We bought the “Collectors Edition” of the game. It came complete with the game, a 2GB usb drive, tips and tricks guide, theme music, and some other goodies. We thought the 2GB usb drive would be perfect for saved game backups. Backing up to CD-Rs or DVDs work too. Just not as fast as using a USB drive.

Can I automate it?

If your really concerned, you can look into syncing your saved game data to a external drive. I recommend a free application from Microsoft called “SyncToy.” With SyncToy, you can make the backup process as simple as one click. You can even automate the whole process with Schedule Tasks. You can read more about it from the link below.

Remember you should backup pretty often. If you’re addicted like us, you’ve already invested hours into the game. No use to lose your saved game data over a system failure.Well I hope we’ve saved the day for ya. Check out some of the cool Sims 3 stuff below. Remember backup and backup often!

Tools

SyncToy 2.0


Need a game guide?



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