Today I’m going to review a game that’s been around for a while, yet surprisingly few people I know have played it – Betrayal at House on the Hill. This is one of the first “non-traditional” games I played. The group I played with back then was kind of diverse, but everyone loved this game and the fact that it was constantly different. This game was also one of the first things my boyfriend and I bonded over (it’s his favorite game and definitely one of my top picks and he was thrilled to meet someone else that had actually heard of it.) In this game players explore a haunted house, one room tile at a time. As they venture further into the depths of the house someone becomes a traitor and then the survival countdown begins. Continue Reading
Review
It’s incredible to me how shocked guys can be over the fact that a girl plays video games. At one of my shows the other night I told a server that I wanted to get home so I could get a little gaming in, and he was shocked when I told him which games I had recently beaten and which games I was currently playing.
In truth, video games have been a major part of my life for years. The first game I picked up was Pokemon on my brand new Gameboy Color in 5th grade. At recess, all the girls sat on those acrobat bars talking about the boys and the boys sat on the rocks playing with their Gameboys. They all had the Pokemon game, mostly red cartridges. So after weeks of chores, I finally saved up enough to get the blue Pokemon cartridge and I got to sit on the rocks at recess and battle the boys. Continue Reading
So, I don’t know how many people followed that reality show on TBS, King of the Nerds – hilarious, btw, if you can watch it you should – but if you’re unfamiliar with it, here’s the premise: 11 nerds locked together in a house called “Nerdvana” compete to prove which of them is the biggest nerd and has earned the right to sit atop the Throne of Games.
Pretty standard reality series, right?
But here’s the oddity. As the game progressed, one by one, the male nerds were eliminated, but the females were untouched. In fact, of the final five, four were female. And the final three? All women. So, yeah, the first King of the Nerds, at least according to reality TV, was a queen.
And that’s pretty cool! How empowering for little nerdy females to watch these strong women compete and win, to watch these women embrace their nerdiness and win the cash prize! To see them take down the men one after the other and remain standing as the strongest of nerd-kind!
The problem is, though, that these women weren’t left in the finale because they fought and triumphed. They were left in the finale because they were by and large ignored by the men. Over and over again the nerds had to nominate people to go to the elimination rounds (“nerd-offs”) and of course, the nerds voted in the people they perceived to be the biggest threat. At those perceived big threats? All male. Only one of the women was given a second glance, and when the dust settled at the end of it, the last nerd standing was a woman who had basically flown under the radar the entire time. She’d never been to a nerd-off, never dominated a challenge, never made herself out to be a threat and since she didn’t step up to the plate and show herself as important, all those guys automatically assumed they didn’t have to worry about her.
What does it say about the nerdy gamer culture that these things still happen? Should I expect my male opponents in 40k to go easy on me because I’m female? Should I expect my guildies in WoW to forgive lower healing numbers and carry me through heroics because I have a higher-pitched voice on vent? Should I step aside and let the guys stutter and stumble their way through teaching a newbie how to roll a character in D&D, even though I’m a ten-year veteran player and (gasp) actually a teacher?
Personally, my answer is no to all of those things. I’m kind of naturally shy, but when someone says (or implies) that I’m not as good as they are for any reason, it raises my hackles, if you will. My numbers in WoW stand up to any other healer or DPS. My 40k list can win games without being slapped with the cheese-label (and it’s characterful and themey, too!). And when someone’s struggling with a character sheet, I can’t help but jump in.
I hope that things like this blog, seeing Beth walk around the game store in six-inch platforms, and Cami running – not just participating in – the current 40k campaign, will do things to make the males of the nerd-world see us more as equals, as viable opponents instead of eye candy. But, until then, does anyone know when the next King of the Nerd auditions are? I could use a hundred thousand dollars…
So the other day while working I saw that there was a demo available of Warhammer 40k: Kill Team. I instantly had to select download. Granted at first I thought it was the Space Marine game demo, it wasn’t until later that I realized it was a different game altogether. I hadn’t even heard of this one.
The intro had a bit of a fun surprise with the appearance of a Caestus. I thought that was pretty cool. However your character is in power armor, and I think everyone will agree that not putting terminators in a Caestus is a bit of a waste of resource.
There are several different character types you can use; Sternguard, Techmarine, Vanguard, or Librarian. The former being ranged specialists and the latter melee. The Sternguard carries a heavy weapon which I thought would make him slow, so I went with the Librarian for testing. The premise of the game is an assault on an Ork Kroozer and the goal is to kill the Warboss. Since this was a demo, I obviously didn’t get a play through.
The controls are ‘twin stick’ i.e. one stick moves the other shoots, which isn’t too bad, but reminded me of the old video game Robotron, which was so busy it made my eyes spin just watching it as a child. Kill Team is almost as busy, as hordes of Gretchin and mobs of Boyz descend upon you. If you die, your character starts again at certain save points. The Librarian has a power that creates a storm around him and eliminates all the foes in direct contact. It’s powered up by killing enemies. Levelling up will increase your powers/sword damage. I liked that you had choices.
Lets talk interface. The game itself is a top down, 3rd person shooter. Normally I could get into this. I grew up on games like Zelda. What bothered me about Kill Team is that the camera would rotate seemingly at random and I had no apparent control over it. This means that my direction of movement and fire would alter. I’m not the best shot in the world, but when you start rotating the world, that complicates things for me.
For sheer carnage and 40k-ness this is a pretty good game. There were never ending bolter rounds (save for the special power ups like double fire and rapid fire) so the destruction continues unabated. Unfortunately that’s all I seemed to find, and I got a little bored with it. I like puzzles and other challenges in my games normally, and I found this one lacking. The attention to detail, variety of skills and weapons, and customization (different chapter markings) were a bonus, so I still think it’s a fairly positive experience.