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| | February 7, 2007
This one’s for my dad
When I was a kid, I used to do jigsaw puzzles with my dad. We’d get one of those big 1000- or 2000-piece puzzles, with plenty of detail, spread it out all over the dining table, and start piecing it together. In retrospect, I guess it was kind of a bonding thing – he worked a lot of late hours and weekends, so we didn’t get to spend as much time together as we’d have liked, but there was always a half-hour here and there to work on the puzzle. | |
| I don’t remember what we talked about, to be honest; I just remember that he was incredibly good at picking out the edge pieces when we first spilled a new puzzle out of the box. An entire mountain of pieces would cascade over the table, but within seconds, he had at least two or three bits of the edge already linked together. I was better at the inside bits, particularly ones with shadows and different colors on them, since I could spot the ones that went together even if they were on opposite sides of the table.
I still keep in touch with my dad, of course (hi, Dad! I love you!), but since we live in two different states, we haven’t done a jigsaw together in years. That is about to change. Next time we’re chatting together on Windows Live Messenger, I’ll just launch a game of Jigsaw Too, choose the hardest option with piece rotation on, and see if we’re as good at assembling a puzzle as we used to be. Because unlike other online jigsaw games, this one lets you collaborate on sorting, rotating, placing, and linking pieces.
I have no idea what we’ll chat about, and honestly, it doesn’t matter. I’m just looking forward to spending some jigsaw time with my dad again.
More games, please!
Much as I can’t believe I’m saying this, I actually managed to finish playing both Westward and Virtual Villagers over the past couple of weeks. Or should I say, I finished Westward and completed all the puzzles in Virtual Villagers (you can’t technically finish Virtual Villagers, since your villagers continue to farm, maintain their huts, and breed even after all 16 puzzles are done). Westward was every bit as much fun as I suspected it would be, since the developers at Sandlot have a great sense of humor and a “no stone left unturned” attitude towards pop-culture references. Anyone who can manage to reference “Brisco County Jr.” and “The Blues Brothers” in a single mini-mission is cool with me.
So now I’m neck-deep in Jewel Quest II, and I’m having a blast. Like the previous game, it has a large set of boards that you’ll revisit several times, with added obstacles each pass through. I’m on the fourth round, and some of the boards have been extremely tough. Unlike its predecessor, though, this game has a detailed storyline that continues past the first round of boards; each pass tells the story of a different character, and they all tie together at the end. Each little tidbit of hard-won narrative feels like getting a cookie at the end of a tough level. I’m really looking forward to the next part of the story!
So the question is: what’s next? I’ve heard that Darwinia is fantastic, so I may need to upgrade my home system to Vista and play that. I’m actually really excited that we have Darwinia on our site; the same developer created one of my favorite independently published videogames of all time, Uplink. Their games are always innovative and smart, so it’s pretty much a guarantee that Darwinia will be plenty of fun.
Besides, if I upgrade to Vista, I’ll be ready to tackle the PC version of Geometry Wars when it launches in the near future!
Valentine’s Day is on the way
It’s that time of year again! Most people see Valentine’s Day as a great excuse to spend quality time together with somebody special, as an occasion to express their feelings of love, or just a chance to hang out with best friends. Other people, unfortunately, see it as a potential disaster waiting to happen, and a source of major stress. I knew somebody like that in college; every year, he’d start to panic around late January, worrying himself silly over the possible repercussions of doing or saying the wrong thing on the most romantic day of the year. True, he was dating somebody who took the whole thing far too seriously, and wanted everything to be absolutely perfect, so he felt a lot of pressure to oblige. But still, it seems that being really stressed about Valentine’s Day rather defeats the purpose.
So what should you do to reduce that stress? Aside from adhering to Amazon.com’s handy list of things not to buy somebody for Valentine’s Day, how can you ensure a successful day of romance and affection? Now, I’m hardly a relationship expert, but I love Valentine’s Day, and maybe these tips can help somebody out there: | |
| Tech time
It’s not so much a technical issue this week as it is a frequently-asked question: when will Geometry Wars be available for download? There’s not much longer to wait! I fully expect that my next Coffee Break will be a happy announcement of the next four Vista-enhanced games: Geometry Wars, 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, Crystal Quest, and Bliss Island. Stay tuned!
I also wanted to give a quick thumbs-up to MSN Games player “NothingDies” from Texas, who wrote to tell us she’d accumulated 94 of our special-achievement badges. That’s the highest total we’ve received so far… way to go!
Of course, if you’ve managed a higher total, we’d love to hear from you. Just email us your MSN Games nickname (or Xbox Live gamertag, if you prefer), plus your badge total. Remember, though: this is just for the limited-time, special-achievement badges, not regular game badges. We’re looking for the player with the largest collection to date. And we’d also love to know which was your favorite so far.
See you next week! | |
