Game Review: Virtual Villagers: The Secret City

I absolutely love the Virtual Villagers series. The Sims has always been a guilty pleasure of mine and, just the previous two, the third game in the series plays a lot like it. Instead of playing one or two characters, you control approximately six characters in the beginning. These people are stranded on a deserted island and it is your job to get them the things they need to live - food, water, shelter, etc. In each version of the game, there is a secondary goal beyond just keeping everyone alive. This one has you uncovering a lost city. The villagers are surrounded by ruins and you need to get them leveled up to the point where they can start rebuilding it. I haven't gotten very far in the game. Mostly because I keep forgetting that this is a real time game that keeps running even after you quit. So if you don't pause the game before quitting, it is pretty likely that all of your villagers will be dead when you return. I will beat the game though! This is my favorite downloadable game ever!

Bigger, faster, stronger

I really love using my computer. I love it a lot. Of course, I want to have all of the best stuff in it. Huge hard drives, tons of computer memory, all that jazz. Luckily, my husband custom builds our systems so I can have pretty much whatever I want as long as it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I just got a new system fairly recently....and I still want a better one ^_^

Game review: Hide & Secret 2: Cliffhanger Castle

Hide & Secret 2: Cliffhanger Castle is a mediocre hidden object game. You play a couple of archaeologists trying to find items for a museum. With some help from Merlin. Yes, this is the actual premise. I actually stopped playing this game for about a month before picking it back up. This is another game that tried to make the genre more difficult by hiding items in shadows. I didn't like it when I played it originally and I didn't like it when I gave it a second chance. Walk right past this one.

Don't fall for it!

Due to being sick for the past couple of weeks, I haven't been able to play my Wii Fit. I'm hoping that I'll be well enough to pick it back up this weekend. In my weight-loss misery, I wallow in commercials for diet pills or other "This will make you thin now!" crap. I know better than to actually consume any of these products but somewhere in the back of my head, a little voice goes "Hey! This might actually work!" before I have to beat it down. I really wonder how many people fall for the appetite suppressant shots or the other insane products. There has to be someone buying it, right? Why?

Game review: Money Tree

Money Tree is a weird time management-sort of game. You are a gardener trying to win the love of a girl. In order to do this, you need to raise trees that will bear fruit that will make you money to win the girl. Yeah, it's a little confusing. I didn't like the gameplay in this very much. You start out collecting falling leaves that somehow makes the tree mature. Then the tree starts to bear fruit and you need to pick/catch the fruit before it falls on the ground. If it falls on the ground, you don't get as much money for it. You also need to keep an eye on the water and sun levels your tree is getting otherwise it will die. Playing it isn't difficult - it's just annoying.

I can't really say I'd recommend this game. It's interesting for the first few minutes but then the tedium sets in. There are a ton of other time management games that are a lot more interesting.

Music review: X-Japan - Forever Love

Artist: X Japan Members: Deyama "Toshi" Toshimitsu (vocals), Hayashi Yoshiki (drums and piano), Matsumoto "Hide" Hideto (lead guitar), Morie "Heath" Hiroshi (bass), Ishizuka "Pata" Tomoaki (rhythm guitar) Album: Forever Love (single) Release date: 7/8/96 Video link: Via YouTube

English translation: I'll never walk alone again, the winds of time are to strong. Ah, it's that what you hurts, which you'll have to live with... Ah, this tight embrace, and this burning, unchanged heart. In this ever changing time, love will never change.

Will you hold my heart? Stop flowing tears. Again, all of my heart is broken....

Forever love, forever dream Only flowing emotions,bury this intense, trying, meaningless times. Oh tell me why ... all I see is blue in my heart.

Will you stay with me? Wait until after the wind passes, all my tears are still flowing...

Forever love, forever dream Stay with me like this. Hold my trembling heart in the dawn. Oh stay with me...

Ah, everything good seems to be ending, in this unending night. Ah, what else would you lose if nothing at all matters.

Forever love, forever dream, stay with me like this. Hold my trembling heart in the dawn.

Oh will you stay with me... Until the wind passes, stay with me again.

Forever love, forever dream, I'll never walk this path. Oh tell me why, tell me true, teach me how to live. Forever love, forever dream, within flowing tears Bright seasons will forever change again and again .... forever love... About the song: Another gorgeous ballad written by Yoshiki. It's one of those songs that makes it very difficult not to cry while it's on. The more I listen to X Japan's songs, the more I love Toshi's voice. I only wish I had the talent that Yoshiki or Toshi has. Hopefully I'll get a chance to review some of their happier songs.

JDorama review: First Kiss

Title: First Kiss Broadcast date: 7/9/07 - 9/17/07 Genre: Romance Number of episodes: 11 Cast: Inoue Mao, Ito Hideaki, Hiraoka Yuta, Matsuyuki Yasuko, Gekidan Hitori, Abe Sadao Plot: Mio (Inoue Mao) is a young girl with a heart condition. She agrees to a complicated surgery that will either save or kill her. Before the surgery, she visits her older brother Kazuki (Ito Hideaki) for one last summer of fun. He promises to help her find her first love in order to show her that life isn't as bad as she thinks it is. What is good: All of the actors did a great job. What is bad: The show has an extremely slow start. Letter rating: C+ Overall: I started watching this show months ago. After the first three episodes, I just couldn't bring myself to watch more of it. It wasn't until I decided that I had to finish it that I sat through the rest of the episodes. I really enjoyed the acting in the show but I felt bad that the material they were given wasn't very good. The Mio character spends a majority of the time as a spoiled little girl and even when she learns that she's being a bitch, she still doesn't want to change her ways. Her brother, Kazu, mostly caters to her every whim and when he decides to stand up against her, he feels overly guilty about it. The show did get a bit better toward the end though it's really not worth sitting through the first half of the series just to get to it.

Game review: Eye for Design

Once again, the interior decorating gaming craze appears. Eye For Design. is more of a puzzle game than anything else. You are basically given a room with some vague instructions about what should go in the room and a list of objects to use. It is your job to make a lovely room that your client will love. Overall, the game was pretty fun. Each object can only be placed in certain spots in the room so there's the difficulty of trying to fit all of the required objects into the room. I think I might have liked it a little better if there was more free-form to it. Instead of having set spots for the objects, let us place the stuff wherever we want. Luckily, the game is still enjoyable despite this small drawback.