Are you familiar with the Scene-it? series of DVD games? They’re a series of movie quiz games you can play on your DVD player – sort of like Buzz, but don’t require a console. Anyway, the exciting news is that a Twilight one is coming very soon and is even coming to the Nintendo Wii in some sort of super deluxe package. Team Edward can face off against Team Jacob in trivia showdowns very soon then.
Judging from a website titled Ultramarines The Movie there is to be an Ultramarines movie. It seems a fair conclusion to reach. What are Ultramarines? Why, they’re genetically-modified super-soldiers in space, and part of the Warhammer 40k gaming universe. The movie probably won’t be out for a while, but once a trailer appears we will post it!
While the library doesn’t have gaming, we do have a rulebook (for the Warhammer fantasy RPG); we also carry White Dwarf magazine, and we have some of the related novels (and here’s 5 good reasons why you should read them if you haven’t already).
The 2009 Tokyo Game Show is under way, and a massive trailer for Final Fantasy XIII (that’s 13 in Roman numerals) has been released. It’s in Japanese! So probably difficult to follow, unless you’re able to understand Japanese. Either way it sure looks good. It won’t be available outside Japan until about the middle of 2010.
Update! There’s a subtitled version. Enjoy.
The trailer is available below – Read more…
Is zombie fiction the new vampire fiction? Zombies rise in teen lit. (Read our interview with Amanda Ashby, author of The Zombie Queen of Newbury High.)
Two mothers spend US$28,000 to get Twilight star Robert Pattinson to kiss their daughters. (You can also pay to be taken on a tour of the film set in Vancouver, Canada: “Twilight fans don’t have to schlep all the way out to New Zealand for their fan fix.” Hah.) There are some exclusive pictures from New Moon here.
Peter Jackson and director Guillermo del Toro discuss their plans for the forthcoming films of The Hobbit. (Del Toro is in Wellington, and was recently interviewed by Stuff.)
Could a virtual racing champion be turned into a real-life racing champion? Well?
Chase cryptids via CryptoZoo. The game’s creator was inspired by freerunners in Wellington (you can even see the library). We’re famous!
Free Realms, the mostly free MMO from Sony, opens today (the website is currently under maintenance in preparation). It’s a game for all ages, and is laden with minigames, pets, PvP, cardgames, and all that. People who have played it seem to love it and find plenty of things to do.
Check out the trailer for it below:
Similarly, take a gander at Wizard101, another MMO for all ages.
Free Realms is an MMO (massive multiplayer online game) that is due out later in the year. It’s free in that you don’t need to pay to play it (like you would with World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, and others) and that you are free to do just about anything you want; you can race cars, raise pets, be a wizard, or whatever. It’s kid-friendly and intended for all ages.
Open beta begins in April, and you can sign up for it now.
Another MMO on its way is Star Wars : The Old Republic; an online webcomic set in the Old Republic, with new issues popping up twice a month, is available here.
An oldie but a goodie for wasting time.
Googlewhack is a game where you type two words into a Google search to yield only one result (it even has its own website). It’s pretty difficult but infinitely rewarding (as all time wasters are). In a few minutes of trying the best I got was two results for “shwar aardvark”. You have to spell things correctly of course or else you’re cheating (even with spelling errors it’s still hard since lots of people can’t spell).
The first rule of Googlewhack: don’t brag about your Googlewhack find on the internet; you’ll unGooglewhack yourself. So if you get one we’ll just have to take your word for it.
If you’re bored try this, courtesy of John Green’s blog (and here, Hank is his brother) via Marshall County Library’s Young Adult Blog:
Type your name into Google followed by a verb then hit ’search’ to make all sorts of discoveries.
Example number 1:
Grimm says…
… he is ready for Steelers’ top coaching job.
I sure am, yes siree, let me at them! The Steelers, they play American football right?
Example number 2:
Grimm does…
… not need to hide behind some absurd mask
Actually yes I do – it’s much easier to write with mask firmly intact.
Other verbs to consider: eats, loves, needs, wants, wears, loves… basically anything you can think of.
This really is totally a great way of looking like you’re doing important work.
It will probably be sunny all weekend, but that’s no reason not to stay indoors and play these great online flash games.
Fold – you’re an ant with the ability to create gravity wells so as to avoid … well, death. It’s a bit tricky to get the hang of it, but not too difficult.
99 Bricks – It’s the opposite of Tetris. Frustrating!
QWOP – I was terrible at this incredibly difficult racing game.
Run – Great fun! And addictive too, in the good way that some games are.
Amorphous Plus – Kill the gloobies with a big sword! (Not as violent as that sounds.) We liked this one – it’s very satisfying.
Physics Invader – Old-school Invader, but with physics!
Wooden Paths – Build wooden bridges across rivers – curiously engaging and relaxing.
Aether – once you’re sorted (it’s quite hard to get off the planet) this game is kind of serene.
Here’s a new list of online Flash games. Perfect for a rainy weekend. Or a sunny weekend – either way. A previous list may be found here.
Maze Stopper 2 - you must reach the flag before the computer. You can stop time! And build obstacles!
Switch – your magnetic ball must collect all the balls of the same colour - you can change colour whenever you like, but don’t touch the other colour. Or else it’s all over.
Defender – you need to protect the planet from aliens. I think (I haven’t played this one yet).
Foolyu – you must fight weird three-eyed monsters. It’s really cool! It’s all in Japanese (apart for ‘game over!’), but pretty easy to work out.
SWFRoads - pilot your spaceship (?) at mad speeds through am obstacle course – in space! Highly addictive.
Samorast – this is a puzzle. Quite a hard puzzle! Very atmospheric.
Play with spider! You can feed it, make it jump (if you turn on user control) and grow freakishly large – and then drag it around by one of its creepy, hairy legs. I’m screaming with terror as I type this!
The previously-mentioned online game, Wizard101, is now up and running. Your character is studying to be a wizard at Ravenwood School of Magical Arts. You can level your character, choose a school of magic and cast spells, duel other wizards, explore far-off worlds, and collect magic cards. The trial is free (and doesn’t expire); otherwise, the monthly subscription is US$9.99.
Young Bond is a free online game that will run until the 8th of October. It was started by Charlie Higson, the author of the Young Bond books (they’re in the children’s fiction section, but are also good for teens), to encourage reading. You can choose to be a British spy or a Soviet agent - although I think we know how that turned out. And the site has free downloads!
Our Olympic medal tally mightn’t be too wonderful, but NZ has done very well at the World Cyber Games Asian Championship in Singapore, winning a gold medal in Guitar Hero III and a silver medal in DotA All Stars - and so earning them the Asian Championship Trophy. NZ’s top gamers are represented by the eBlacks (you can listen to an interview with an eBlack that aired on National Radio this morning here). Nice one!
The 100 most common words in the English language – how many do you think you know? You have five minutes to find out! I got 44/100, which was quite reasonable. (There are some words that are more common than you‘d think.)
A few clues for you.
Can you guess where their accents are from? This is a (pretty tough) flash game where you have to guess the speaker’s nationality – and their city – from their accent. I can mostly tell which part of the U.S. someone is from by listening to them talk (I blame years of American television), but some of the European accents are very difficult to identify.
You should be able to spot the New Zealander – but can you tell which city she’s from?
An ‘MMO’ is a Massive Multiplayer Online game. These are, as the name suggests, computer games that utilise persistent worlds whose inhabitants can interact with one another in any number of ways. Here are a couple of new MMOs – so new that they’re not even launched. You can sign up for the beta testing!
Kiwi Heroes is ‘complete with character advancement, special powers and abilities, extensive social and community features, and a world full of dynamic solo and group-based adventures and wondrous places to explore’ – and who could say no to playing a kiwi?
Wizard101 is set in a school for wizards (a la Hogwarts); you can level your character, choose a school of magic and cast spells, duel other wizards, explore far-off worlds, collect magic cards, and so on – it looks very cool. Wizard101 is currently in open beta too.
TypeRacer is a Flash game in which you race a car against others. Your typing speed determines the speed of your car. My measley 50 words per minutes seems to let me lead most races (though the current champion can type 219 wpm).
Not only is this game fun, it also qualifies as typing practice.
Some libraries in Los Angeles are having gaming nights - Guitar Hero, Wii Sports, and other console games. While we don’t have anything like that here – yet! – there will be a gaming night during this year’s SubText08. Wicked.
We do stock some good gaming mags in the teens collection; they often come with demo discs. Playstation mag, XBox 360, and Total Gamer.
Otago Museum’s SciCity is an interactive website that is laden with games. What’s notable is that you can create your own avatar, earn SciCity dollars that you can spend on technology, and chat with other users! It’s pretty addictive, but in the good, educational way. Otago Museum also produces the Cosmix Comic books, which are all online. We often have free copies in the library as well.
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