Let The News Eat Cake!

You know, I could write about Jack Thompson supposedly writing Bill Gates and blaming him for the Virginia Tech shootings or I could touch upon David Jaffe's hissy fit and the various jackass responses there to. I could even discuss the latest shaky cam Halo 3 multi-player video or why I'm thinking of moving my blog to 1up.com because Spaces hates Mozilla Firefox, but that's not what ICandee, You Game is about...

ICandee, You Game is about issues that matter. Games that you really care about playing and news that means something. I'm of course referring to Cake Mania for the Nintendo DS...

Yes, yes I've read the reviews and they aren't particularly pretty, but so freaking what! Cake Mania is a lot of fun and if it weren't for the searing chest pains and panic attacks I have while playing, I would probably play it every day. As it is, I try to bake my way to glory every other day in between rounds of Boom Boom (the XBLA game, not the fun kind of "boom boom") and Scrubs reruns.

So there you have it...Hard hitting gaming news and up to the minute updates on important developments? Pfffftttt...Whatever, I'm too busy trying to save my grandparents' bakery from those no good corporate slimeballs...

Arcade Go Boom

So how come no one told me about all the new games for Live Arcade?

/sarcasm

Current Addiction 1: Boom Boom Rocket-The only thing that would make this game any more fun is if they added some symphonic Floyd and symphonic Doors. Nothing better than classical dance music...

Current Addiction 2: Luxor 2-Just like Zuma only easier and more difficult...Oh Microsoft, is there anything you can't sell me twice?

Current Addiction 3: Puzzle Quest-OK, not an Arcade game...yet...Muwahahahahaha

Elite Beat and the Clockwork Effect

The other day at work, "Believe" by Cher came on the radio. I've never cared one way or another about Cher but I found myself on the point of dry heaving when this particular Cher song started playing. The strange thing was that the same thing happened whenever I heard "September" by Earth Wind and Fire or "Let's Dance" by David Bowie. What the heck? Then it hit me...I had become a gaming Clockwork Orange...Dun-dun-DUN!

I spent so many hours playing these songs (among others) in Elite Beat Agents on the DS that they have become almost cringe worthy to listen to now. If nothing else, my finger will start tapping the EBA "ultra violent" beats as if I were still playing the game. Sort of like: take away my stylus and I can still feel my fingers tingling...

All that's left for me now is to get my butt kicked by an ex-droog. And where's the nearest milk bar anyway?

ICandee Strikes Back and Actually Finishes a Game

Episode VII

I Totally Pwned Lego Star Wars II

When we last saw me, I was having difficulty beating this game as glitches were trying to destroy me.

Jedi Luke would miss a jump and then continually spawn in mid jump with no escape in sight...

Dagobah R2-D2 would slide down hills and not be able to get back up...

Dagobah Luke would get stuck behind a truck and not be able to move...

Someone would be in my way and I would shoot them...

*sigh*

But none of this stopped me!

I continued to fight the Force!

(The bad one, not the good one)

And yesterday I had victory over Lego Star Wars II for the Xbox 360...

To celebrate my triumph, here's a guy playing the Star Wars theme on a banjo:

Engamement Picture

It's hard to know what topic to hit on today as there is a lot going on: GRAW 2 is out! I fought Lego Star Wars II and Lego Star Wars II won! I have gaming engagement pictures or "engamement" pictures if you will...

OK, maybe I'll explain that last one first...

Anyone that's been reading this here blog for a while (you know who you are and I thank you) knows that my fiance and I met on Xbox Live and we're getting married this year. A "marriage made in Microsoft" I suppose. So as RuFfNeCk was down here in NC over the weekend, we went to get engagement pictures made. We got the usual poses taken (for the family and what not) but then...to immortalize our love (for games...and maybe for each other I have no idea) we took this one:


Ah yes, true love...

In Your Face Hitomi!

Well it's finally happened! After hours of relentless bathing suit shopping and volleyball playing, I unlocked an achievement in DOA Xtreme 2. Woo hoo!

When I first bought this game, I assumed that the achievements would be easy ones to unlock...Then I remembered Itagaki made this game and my hopes were dashed. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem working for my achievements. There's nothing like that feeling of, "Yes! I did it!" when that precious little banner flashes along the bottom of the screen. But for me, DOAX2 started to taunt me when I hadn't unlocked a single achievement after playing through multiple vacations as Hitomi (who, by the way, isn't even my favorite character but once I got going with her collection, I didn't want to start over again with someone else). Not to mention that Christie is my partner right now and she's mean...

Anyhoo, I now have an achievement in a game that refused to give me one for playing it non-stop for I don't even know how long. Ironically, if this game had no achievements, I probably would have just played through one or two vacations and then traded it in. Pure genius Microsoft!

*I can't wait to see Jay get 100% completion in this game.

By the way, for anyone currently playing this game, make sure you play it long enough for Zack to give you the "strange volleyball". Wow..

The Craftsmanship of Video Games

Nothing like a change of scenery to breathe new life into a blog, eh? (Here's to finding an Photoshop cutting tutorial, cheers!)

In my recent travels (and by travels I mean visiting sites other than mine), I've come across an entire side of video gaming that has nothing to do with the act of playing video games but is part of our "culture" nonetheless. I was unwittingly a member of it and didn't even know it...until now...

May I present: Video Game and Handicrafts...collide!!!

We have gaming cross stitch, created by Becky over at The Pink Samurai:

We also have gaming knitting in the form of a Katamari hat (I want one!), created by Natalie Zee Drieu at Craftzine.com:

There's Duck Hunt in Lego form from Skinny Coder (check out his other ones too):

And last but not least, a knitted Two-Headed Baby from Doublefine, created by Jessica Hutchison:

So what is the lesson for today children? Here it is: Even though Mom's made you put down the controller, that doesn't mean the gaming has to stop.