Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Words on Wednesday

Look what finally arrived yesterday!

DSC_4025

And by finally I mean it was pre-ordered on July 20, 2010 with a late Nov release date.

Which made it perfect for Mayhem’s Xmas present.

Then I was sent notice that the release date would be late Dec.

Ok, could still make it for Xmas and if not, well, it can be a birthday present.

The nice thing about Mayhem’s January birthday is that delayed Xmas presents can easily become birthday presents.

Then I was sent a notice of the release being moved to late Jan.

Fine! So it might be a day or so late as a birthday present, still it’s fine.

Then I was sent notice of a late March release date.

Really LucasArts? Late March? Really?  For something expected out 5 months earlier?

How poorly planned was this game release anyway?

But at long last the Big Brown Truck of Joy arrived with the game & within minutes the little gamers we absorbed in it.

They are actually playing together, which is unusual.

Mayhem is the gamer & he’s got a plan when it comes to new games. The plan does not involve getting his brother to go along with him. It involves no brother at all.

Once Mayhem has gone through the game once*, then Havoc is allowed to play & they go after all the goodies, easter eggs & high score things that Mayhem overlooked or ignored in his rapid quest to complete the game the first time through.

But they are playing this together. So far, it’s going well**. They have been playing for 4 hours***, with a small break for a quick meal & homework & there has only been one outright fight about Havoc not cooperating, which mostly involved Mayhem shouting “Over there Havoc, go over there” and Havoc shouting “No we need to go over here” and ended with a “FINE I’M NOT PLAYING”**** from Havoc that lasted until that scene was over, when he rejoined.

Honestly, the Wii games have done more to increase cooperation between the boys than damn near everything else we have done.

We have Wii Lego Pirates of the Caribbean on pre-order now*****. We ordered it in January with a May release date.

I’m dubious.

Let’s see if Disney Interactive has their stuff together any better than Lucas Arts does.

*Mayhem going through a game the first time can be painful to the listening audience as he gets incredibly frustrated and screams, cries and generally pitches a major fit whenever he gets stuck. But he will not give up on it. He plays through the tears & shrieks.

**You might disagree with me if you were in the house right now. But I have the bar set really low for ‘things going well’. How low? So low you would need a shovel to dig up the bar to see how low it is. “Nobody is bleeding, profusely” is the main requirement.

***Yes I just admitted to the whole internets that my kids played a video game for 4 hours.  They will probably do so for the next few nights until they have cleared the levels, after which the ‘exploratory phase’ of gaming will begin & game playing will fall back to less than an hour a day. We only get new games 3-4 times a year so I really don’t give a rap how much time they spend on them the first week as long as the homework gets done. No point quoting statistics or authority recommendations to me. I know them. I just don’t care in this instance.

**** “FINE I’M NOT PLAYING” is the second most heard shout from the living room during game time. “IT’S CHEATING!!! STUPID FING IS CHEATING!!!” is the most heard game time shout.

***** Every gamer has their ‘thing’. The games they cannot wait to get their grubby little hands on. The games they buy the instant they hit the shelves. Ours are the Lego ones. Lego Harry Potter being the only exception. They boys were not into it but they haven’t read the books yet. I expect their opinion will change once they are more familiar with Harry

I’m experimenting with footnotes instead of in paragraph parenthesis (my usual method) to see if it helps the flow of the narrative any better. Once again, I am dubious. What do you think?

13 comments:

Darcy@Somewhatmuddledmusings said...

Let us know what you think about it! We're putting it off until summer because it's such a tempation to us all to do it during the day when we should be schooling LOL Those first days after getting a new game are hard :)

SciFi Dad said...

I've always been partial to parenthetical comments/asides as opposed to footnotes; I find I skip them until the end, then have to go back to see where that comment relates to.

Also: a new Lego Star Wars might be the one thing that brings my PSP out of retirement (Lego Indy II failed miserably at that, and I haven't even bothered with Harry).

Wendy Bukowski said...

Just over from BFS. I understand why you're trying the footnotes and I'll be interested to see which way you go ultimately. I like the flow you have without the comments in the body and the footnotes separately make perfect sense BUT I did miss them first time around. I think it was because of the font size but I did also have glare on my screen lol

Andrea @ The Creative Junkie said...

"big brown truck of joy" always makes me laugh - by the way, I think your bar and my bar are located in the same pit, six feet under.

(I like the idea of footnotes, but I can barely see them. It's probably my monitor/screen resolution settings but they are tiny and I actually have to squint to read them.)

Rinda1961 said...

I love your parentheticals! I think they are integral part of you're writing style.
I don't really like the footnotes (because I don't get the snarky asides until later in the narrative flow). PLus, footnotes are a big part of my work-work writing, which makes them less enjoyable.
Rinda

Adrienne May said...

we only buy multi player games for our wii. The girls have handheld games they play by themselves so the last thing we want is who's turn it is to play a game. And the girls usually do a pretty good job of playing it together.

Lizziemade said...

Wow that was a slow-coach delivery! Still you have it now and it sounds like the boys are enjoying it. Hooray if it helps them learn to play co-operatively. My DS can get quite frustrated with new games too, though as he grows/matures, there are less strops and tears (actually I can't remember the last time we had that issue... ). They grow out of it (more or less) I think.

Do let us know how the guys rate this one - no point buying it if it's rubbish, but we might if it turns out to be good. (thank you for your Product Testing Service - much appreciated lol!)

Kim said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog yesterday! I use footnotes occasionally, so I'm not opposed to them. Your footnotes added a lot of extra detail and insight, but I wonder if they're a bit too small and too many for one post...? It took me longer to read the post because I kept going back and forth. I tend to stop at the asterisk, read the footnote, go back to the main text, etc.

Gingerpussycat said...

I've never heard of Lego games on WII! I'm so behind the times. How do the Lego versions differ from a conventional star wars game? I'm asking as DH's birthday is coming up and he is THE most difficult person to buy for! Hope things continue in a non blood spilling way ;-)

Heather said...

Im not a footnote fan either Stacey! It has interrupted your usual flow :(

Cheri Andrews said...

I was once told that if it was relegated to a footnote it wasn't worth including at all. I buy that totally. I either fit it in the text or forget it!

Carole said...

I liked the footnotes :)

humel said...

We got this game in the post yesterday - but having to change our plans from the original 'Christmas present' idea, we've gone for 'Mother's Day present'. Luckily Mother's Day in the UK is earlier than in the US, so I get it next weekend :)

I'm the one who has to play through first - the kids are allowed a turn, but they are NOT allowed to overtake my percentage complete. I check this carefully. It tends to be OK, because their screen time is rationed and mine is not ;)