I purchased Boom Blox last night because it looked like a simple fun game. I’ve been watching videos of gameplay for months and with Steven Spielberg creating it, I thought it must be fun. I’ll tell you this, it is. The story line for Adventure mode is very simple and something kids will enjoy a lot more than me. The true fun lies in the levels and not the in-between story line. The control with the Wii remote is very simple and easy and I’ve enjoyed the different types of play, whether it be strategically knocking down blocks, pulling blocks (think Jenga), or knocking away enemies. There is quite a bit of strategy involved in the game, on some levels more than I expected. I think this will be a great game for kids to think outside the box and strategically plan their moves. One thing I wish I could do, and maybe I’ve not figured if you can do this yet, but when you are exploding the blocks, I’d like to freeze the action so I can get a great angle to see the blox blowing away. I know you can switch angles while it’s happening with no problem, but a lot of times the action is almost done by the time I switch views. This is definitely one of those games where you can play a few levels when you have a few minutes of free time and then come back to it later. It’s a great casual game that makes you think critically of your every move. It’s worth picking up, or at least playing, if you’re looking for a solid Wii game.
I use a service called Lifestream.fm to aggregate my online life. It gathers my tweets from twitter, pictures from Flickr, my Diggs, recently played songs, my Del.icio.us feed, and blog posts from this blog. It’s a great service. It’s very easy to use, includes more social services than Socialthing, and looks great. There’s just one problem. The site has disappeared. When you go to Lifestream.fm, there’s just a GoDaddy parked page. Very odd. Anyone know what’s happened to it?
EDIT: It seems to be back up now. Weird.
I love letting other people see what tracks I listen to and I love being able to find artists similar to what’s on my playlist, that is why I love last.fm. Even though I don’t use my MacBook for listening to music much, when I do I still like to scrobble, or submit, the tracks. My problem has always been finding a good Mac client to do this. I used to use Menuet, but every time I right click the icon in the menu bar it crashes. So, I’m saying goodbye to that. I downloaded and installed the official client from last.fm and that was deleted almost instantaneously. The client gives you the option to place an icon in the menu bar but doesn’t give you the option of hiding it on the dock when it’s open. I don’t want it on my dock. At all. Deleted. So, right now I’m trying iScrobbler. We’ll see how I like this one when I’m actually able to listen to music. Does anyone have a suggestion for a last.fm app? Do you use something you think is better? If so, let me know.
Hillary really is losing it. By it I mean her mind, the small amount of respect many people have left for her, the country, her future in politics, etc. Obama won North Carolina last night by a wide margin. Hillary barely won Indiana. I mean barely. If you ask her though, she’s still the favorite candidate for the country. All the states that voted for Obama don’t matter. Her slim victory (by just thousands of votes) in Indiana is a mandate. CNN reported that 1 in 10 voters in Indiana were Republicans voting for Hillary (thanks to Rush Limbaugh) because she is the weaker candidate. Take out those votes, and she would have lost Indiana. She really hasn’t got a clue.
Hillary needs to drop out. Now. She continues to hurt her party, run negative campaigns, lies, and now apparently, tries to buy Super Delegate votes. It’s time for her to face the music, do what’s best for the party and the country, and end her run. I don’t think she will though. I think she’d rather see John McCain win the election, that way she can have a shot again in 2012. She doesn’t care about the country, the people, or the party. She cares about herself, and that’s it. Super Delegates need to end this now and throw their support behind a candidate that can and will win. Hillary Clinton is an embarrassment to the party and the country.
I got Mario Kart Wii on launch day. This was one of the titles for the Wii that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. I loved Mario Kart 64 and couldn’t wait to see what Nintendo would come up with for their motion control Wii remote. This is old news by now but the Wii remote sits in the center of a miniature steering wheel and you steer just like you would a car during your game play. After playing it for more than a week, I have to say, this is a fun game. The courses are fun, and in cases such as the mines or the rainbow track, they are beautiful. The scenery is filled with pictures, drivers, statues of all the Miis stored on your Wii. You can even unlock your Mii as a racer. One of the big frustrations for me is the addition of the new blue turtleshell bomb thing. I hate that one. The online play is fun and lag free. It is much more difficult than the regular racing against the computers because you have real people running you off the road and throwing things at you. That aside, it is still a game with a lot of fun. The 50cc tracks are great for beginners (perhaps too easy for most), the 100cc tracks are a little more difficult, but manageable, and the 150cc tracks are even more difficult. It’s definitely a great addition to the Wii. The next game I’m excited about, Steven Spielberg’s Boom Blox.