Observations after my first try at Rock Band

There hasn't been much gaming going on around my house, so when my kids saw that the neighbors had Rock Band they jumped at a chance to play it. I even lent my vocals to a couple songs. It was a fun way to wind down after a big meal.

I think that people underestimate the amount of musicality required to be good at rhythm games like Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and Dance Dance Revolution. If you are familiar with the song before you ever play the game, then you will know the rhythm and react more quickly when the colors pop up. I'm not a good singer at all, but I scored well on Bon Jovi's "Dead or Alive" because I love that song. I've been singing along with it for years, so I knew when to stop and start and when to raise and lower my voice.

--When Guitar Hero came out, many musicians hastened to remind people that playing the game is nothing like playing a real guitar. While that is true, you still have to have a sense of rhythm to be good at these musical games. My daughter M, who has been in her school band for five years, rarely misses when playing guitar in the game.

--Playing the drums in Rock Band comes closer to playing real drums than the guitar controller comes to real guitar. If the person playing the drum controller is doing well, you can mute the TV and hear a definite rhythm in his tapping.

--Singing well on Rock Band does not mean that you can sing. Most of the songs my neighbors had on their version were classic rock tracks that I grew up with. I am a lousy singer, but I scored high on songs like Bon Jovi's "Dead or Alive". Whether you are singing or playing in the game, it helps to know the song well before you start.

Games I Tried to Play

Although I enjoyed my recent train trip, I had trouble sleeping. While everyone was snoozing away, I took that opportunity to try a couple games that have been sitting on my laptop for a while. I may not play these games in their entirety, but I definitely learned something about my preferences.

First up was the demo for Rooms: The Main Building. It is available at Big Fish Games. Although casual games tend to feel repetitive to me, I don't mind playing them in small doses. Usually the graphics are pretty and if you need a match-3 or a hidden-objects fix, casual games are perfect for that. However, I didn't get much enjoyment from this game. Rooms: The Main Building is a category of casual games that I hadn't tried yet -- the sliding puzzle. The instructions for this particular one were confusing and even after I figured them out, I didn't feel that there was much game for me to play. Basically, the player has to rearrange blocks so that the online character can walk through the rooms in the correct order. If this is the best example of it, I may never try another one.

Next, I attempted a spin on an old adventure game classic. Remember Sam and Max? I didn't read the comic book or play the computer game when it was released in 1993. In fact, I never even heard of the characters until last year when I saw that they had been revived in episodic game form on GameTap. I downloaded episode 201 to give it a whirl. It was more entertaining than Rooms, but I was stumped in no time. My ability to work through the puzzles in adventure games hasn't improved with age. Give me a good walkthrough to help me when I get stuck. Either that, or a 10-year-old. It took my son DJ five minutes to solve the puzzle that stumped me for 20. If nothing else, Sam and Max reminds me that my kids have creative thinking skills.

Popular Games for Playing on the Train

Well, I am back from my family trip. As usual, I had high hopes for playing games with my family, but the cards barely came out. We didn't play anything until the train trip back home. The kids and adults had separate sessions of Landlord!, and the boys gave Ghoulash a try.

The lounge car on the train was a perfect place to play. Even when the tracks got really bumpy, the cards stayed put on the table. There was enough space on the table top for four players to play Landlord! comfortably. I think we could even play Pounce. It was definitely more fun than traveling by plane.

And . . . we're off!

Tomorrow is the day! We're off on our big family trip. I still haven't quite decided what games to pack, but I work well under pressure :-). Hopefully, I'll have plenty of material for the blog when I come back since we should have several opportunities to play cards. In the meantime, the blog will be quiet unless I get a chance to post from the hotel on Wednesday. See you soon!

Games to play on a train?

"No, I will not play it on a plane,
And I will not play it on a train . . ."

Sorry, I had a bit of a Dr. Seuss moment while I was thinking of a title for this post :-).

The whole "fam damily" is going on a trip this coming Tuesday, which starts with a 15-hour train ride to Florida. The batteries for our various electronic devices (laptop, Nintendo DS, smartphones) won't last that long. I'm on the hunt for other free, compact entertainment options. I'm packing my knitting, a copy of Ghoulash, and several copies of Games magazine. Now I'm searching for either simple free print-and-play games or rules to games that can be played with standard playing cards. Anyone have any suggestions?

Board Games On Screen

This morning, I fired up the demo for Dangerous High School Girls In Trouble while the kids were getting ready for school. It's been sitting on my hard drive for a while so I had forgotten the description I read that made me want to try the game. One thing I definitely forgot was that this game is styled to look like a board game on screen.

I'm not a fan of a board game interface on computer or video games. I'm not talking about games like Scrabulous, which allows you to play Scrabble with your online friends. The ones that bug me are the imitations of roll-and-move games, whether they are original or a digital recreation of a classic like Monopoly. Pressing a button to roll dice and then letting the computer move your piece is terribly dull. The thing that makes this type of game bearable is when you are playing with your friends and laughing about the text on the board or on the cards. A computer-generated partner doesn't have a great sense of humor.

Even the board-style video games that you can play with friends don't impress me. I've tried two different incarnations of Mario Party, which is supposed to be a great party game. My kids like it, but I didn't have any fun. Not being able to see the whole board at all times is frustrating for me. The mini-games are OK, but I didn't feel invested in my character or beating my opponents the way I usually do with a regular board game or another style of video game.

As I said, there are many board games that make the leap to the screen rather well. I wouldn't want to deal the fiddly scoring of Ingenious on my own, so playing it on the computer is ideal. I just don't see why a game that didn't start out on the table would want to go with a board-game layout when there are so many other options available. I haven't played enough of Dangerous High School Girls In Trouble yet to make up my mind about it, but the layout does give me pause.

Where my gaming head is at

School will be starting for my kids on 25 Aug, and in this house that means more game time! We don't allow our kids to watch TV or have lots of visitors on school nights, so I want to give them something to do that doesn't make them feel like they are trapped in the house. Once school work and chores are done, I plan to engage the kids in more card games. Our game repertoire has gotten stale, so I can't wait to test some games on them.

There is another gaming opportunity coming up for us right after Labor Day. We are going on a big family trip and the first leg of the journey involves a 15-hour train ride. There will be about 20 of us taking the train, so I'm sure at least a few of them will be open to playing cards.

Once we get this trip out of the way, I plan to go back on the hunt for inexpensive board games on eBay again. ABM is getting bored with the games we've been playing, even though he is the one who insists on playing the same games over and over :-). The top of my wish list is High School Drama, but I'm not sure if he would like that. It looks like we may be visiting my sister and her husband every other month, so I am also interested in games with a real estate theme. They really got a kick out of Landlord! so I need to find some other Monopoly replacements. I may have to spend some quality time with Board Game Geek. If any of you have suggestions, feel free to pass them along!