PlayOn!

Around Christmastime last year, my husband purchased PlayOn a digital media server that streams to your Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. I think they handle the Wii too, but I'm not positive. To be honest, I didn't pay too much attention to the Wii stuff since we have both a 360 and a PS3. We haven't really been using it a lot lately. However, last night, we found streams for both anime and jdorama. That means my daughter can watch Cardcaptor Sakura (which is impossible to find on DVD) and I can watch jdoramas without having to wait for them to download. Unfortunately, all is not honey and cakes. What PlayOn basically does is scour sites like YouTube, Hulu, and Veoh to find streams of the show you want. That means there can be a ton of pixelation and just crappy video. A good example of this is the opening to Densha Otoko. It was pretty unwatchable. Though I did watch the first episode of Papa to Musume no Nanokakan without a ton of trouble. It was broken into 4 separate parts so that was kinda annoying, but the video wasn't completely awful. I'll give it a few more tries to see how I like it for my stuff. Otherwise, it'll be relegated to anime only, which is good news for my daughter!

And the stress melts away

This is a rather exciting time for my family. My husband starts an awesome new job in a little over a week. Besides being a career boost, it's also a rather large financial boost. That means that we'll be able to do more of the things we want to instead of having to wait months to save enough money. One of the items on my list is a day at the spa. A nice facial (reading prototype 37c reviews..I'm not sure if I want a wrinkle reducing thing. My face isn't all that wrinkly yet...), a lovely massage, and the obligatory manicure and pedicure. I think I'm going to treat my sister to a spa day for her birthday this year. Everyone will have such a nice time relaxing and being pampered for once.

Allergies and my eyes

Thanks to this crappy allergy season this year, I haven't been sleeping too well. Now I have these big dark circles under my eyes. I don't usually wear makeup so I can't just cover them up. Does anyone have any good suggestions for how to get rid of these? I've heard something like tea bags or cucumbers...but do they really work? Or are those only for puffiness? Maybe I'll just hibernate until the trees are done puking all over the place.

Game review: The Lost Cases of 221B Baker St.

While I was waiting for my laundry to finish yesterday, I decided to give one of the Sherlock Holmes hidden object games a go. Usually these are a little more difficult for a lazy Sunday afternoon, but I had faith that I could finish these puzzles without using my brain too much. I ended up being very surprised at what was presented to me. Instead of one big case you are trying to solve, The Lost Cases of 221B Baker St. is a collection of multiple smaller cases. In the sixty minute time frame of the demo, I was able to finish four different cases. Each case had similar yet different aspects. They each had a hidden object section, a puzzle section, and a memory section. The hidden object section was where you found your clues and, generally, one clue is messed up. This is where the puzzle section comes in. Sometimes you are piecing together a ripped up piece of paper; sometimes you are trying to slide a rock piece out of a box...each one is different. After you have found all of your clues, you move onto the memory section, where you figure out who is the suspect. Each suspect is attributed to a clue and it is your job to remember which clue goes to which suspect. You need to pick out the clue that has changed to eliminate that suspect.

I found the game much more interesting than other Sherlock Holmes games. There is usually a lot more exposition, which limits your actual game time. With this game, you can actually choose to play a version that has less dialogue. I prefer to get down to the game, myself. I can't wait to buy the full version of this game to see what the other cases have to offer.

Spring Cleaning

I'm finally cleaning all of the junk out of my house. My husband and I tend to accumulate a lot of stuff. I'm not sure how it happens, it just does. I guess it's because we don't really like to throw things away. Most of my daughter's stuff I can freecycle. I'm not sure how well that will work for our stuff though. Maybe I can sell textbooks that we have leftover from our college years. I can't imagine we'll need those any more, especially considering how old they are. But maybe some collector will want them, right?

Still sleepy

Yesterday was quite tiring for me. My daughter had her annual check-up at the doctor's office. It went well, but there was a lot of running around afterward. Needless to say, I had to grab a little half hour nap in the afternoon. Sometimes I wonder why I get so tired. Do I need a pulse oximeter to check the oxygen level in my blood? I don't think that it's sleep deprivation. I tend to sleep a LOT when I can. I don't want to be tired all the time!

My dream house

Man, it's raining out. On the plus side, I think I have decided what else I want in my dream house! I would like one or two foosball tables in my game room. There will also be a pinball table and a big screen TV set up for the consoles. Of course, it would have to be far enough away from my movie room that the noise from the game room wouldn't bug anyone watching movies. Yeah, it's not likely to ever happen (since I'd probably need a couple million dollars to make it happen) but I can dream, can't I?

Game review: Alice in Wonderland

A few months ago, I reviewed an Alice in Wonderland themed time management game. Despite how difficult that game was, I gave into my love for all things Alice and tried the hidden object Alice in Wonderland game. While the storyline wasn't quite Alice in Wonderland, it was very similar. Your character recently purchased a new house. In the basement, you find a portal to another world. In one of the rooms upstairs, you find a newspaper article about some missing girls. Much to your surprise, you find one of the missing girls in the other world! It is up to you to travel to the strange world and save all of the missing girls.

As should be expected from a Wonderland game, this isn't just a plain hidden object game. Some of the objects need to be put together before you can use them. Some of the parts for these 'bigger' objects aren't even in the same room. However, you do get slight hints when that happens. (The items turn red when you aren't in the same room as the object.) This makes the game a little more difficult, yet not so difficult that it is annoying. There are also a few mini-games - letters that need to be pieced together or gears that need to be lined up. (I fully admit that I sucked at the gears and frequently skipped that part.)

I love when games add little things like these to separate them from the run of the mill games. And I love it even more when they do it well enough to make the game fun and interesting instead of aggravating. I had tons of fun playing and I think you will too.