Joe Gamer

Google is celebrating Pack-Man’s 30th anniversary with a very special logo. Just go to Google.com and wait for the game to load. Then press ‘insert coin’ to play. Once it loads, press insert coin for two-player action with Ms. Pac-Man.

Of all the various logos Google has showcased, this one has to be my favorite.

© 2010, Lynn Little. All rights reserved.

For those Legend of the Five Rings(L5R) fans who have longed to show their clan pride, finally AEG has heard your cries. As part of AEG’s main online store, they now have L5R clan stores. In the clan store, you can find merchandise tailored to your favorite clan from hoodies to deck backers. AEG is also selling L5R foils. For $20, you get:

Thanks AEG. Now I will never have to fret over Father’s Day, Christmas, or anniversary gifts.

© 2010, Lynn Little. All rights reserved.

For weeks now, we have been wanting to have a game night. Thanks to the Littlest Gamer, we had one last night. It started off innocent enough as she wanted to play one card game. When we finished, she took it back into her room and brought out another one. In total, we played three new card games last night and had a lot of fun.

The three card games we played were all from Gamewright. Gamewright is known for their short card games. Most of their games take less than 30 minutes to play. These card games make a great choice for when the Little One wants to play a game but we just don’t have a lot of time. Besides when you’re dealing with a 4-year-old’s attention span, the faster the game the better.

The fastest game we played was Too Many Monkeys.. It’s ironic because it took the longest to read the instructions for the game. Each player starts off with six cards that are laid out in front of them face down. On your turn, you draw a card and then place it on one of the face down cards. Then you can turn over that card. The object of the game is to turn all of your face down cards over and have the number sequence 1-6. There are specialty cards that will either help or hinder you in this quest. Too Many Monkeys was a lot of fun and fast. Plus it’s a card game that the Little Gamer could easily play and enjoyed, too.

The card game This Big reminded me of Go Fish but instead of asking for cards, a player plays a lure card that shows what color fish he is after. Each player plays a card face down in front of them. It either has to be a fish of the lure color or river garbage like a tire, trombone, etc. If you have neither of these, then you can say “No Catch” and don’t have to play a card face down. The first player to 10 wins the game. The Little Gamer smoked us on this game. She had three lunker lures that meant we had to play our highest scoring card. She had seven points after round 2! Needless to say, she really liked this game.

The most controversial game of the evening was King Toad. King Toad is most related to the card game Rummy. Cards are played in sequence. There are King Toad cards that allow the player to call which numbered card they want the next player to play. The round ends when one player has no more cards. Then they earn a token. The first to earn three tokens wins the game. Well, guess who didn’t win the first token and had a meltdown about it? That’s right. JoeGamer. Just kidding. It was the Littlest Gamer, of course. This was the longest of the card games as we all eventually had two tokens. The final round I won – which was not the outcome the Little Gamer had wanted. This game is meant for older kids, so this one goes back on the game shelf for a few more years.

All in all the impromptu game night was a success with everyone in the family having a good time. It’s so nice to see her interested in card games since she loves her video games. And as parents who love card games, it makes us so proud that the Little Gamer loves them as much as we do.

© 2010, Lynn Little. All rights reserved.

The Littlest Gamer(4 years old) – who at times is a more avid gamer than her mom – has discovered our DnD minis. She is a natural storyteller and I fully expect her to be a Game Master just like her dad.

She came over with an Aracnix Guard and told me he was in China – so here he stands on the computer desk. One other figure was outside all night and in the morning he died. There is now an epic battle between a Bulette, Chillborn, and Xorn. Apparently a couple of the figs are on fire, and a Spined Devil is going to save them. She keeps this up and her daddy might ask her to join his gaming group. She is always entertaining, but it is quite funny to see her playing with these scary figures when earlier she was playing with My Little Pony.

© 2010, Lynn Little. All rights reserved.

These cute little Facebook games seem to be taking up all my free and not-so-free time lately. My house is in shambles and my work is piling up. But I’ve finally reached level 26 in FarmVille and my restaurant in Restaurant City is coming along quite nicely.

Restaurant City is the latest Facebook game that has become my obsession of the week. JoeGamer introduced me to it just two days ago. I do have to admit that it is a very low maintenance game so far. Of course, all of these games are somewhat low maintenance in the lower levels. Just leave the game running to earn XP. As long as your employees are fed, then they will work and you earn money even after you close out of the game.  In just two short days, I’ve already picked up a few Restaurant City tips that are worth repeating.

Have more stoves than waiters. It takes longer to cook than to serve the food, so if you have more stoves more food can be cooked at one time.

Build a maze to your seating since it will take longer for customers to reach a seat. This will give your waiters a little extra time and hopefully keep customer loss at a minimum.

Visit your all of your neighbors at least once since you get a free ingredient for the first visit. If you are missing ingredients for a recipe, check your neighbors to see if they have any open items for trade since you can then trade immediately without having to wait on locked trades.

Restaurant City is fun and a very low stress game. Just check in on your employees to keep them fed and happy. You can also close your restaurant by putting a chair or an object in front of the door in case you won’t be playing for a few days.

© 2009, Lynn Little. All rights reserved.