My gaming rant

Recently finished a review of Puzzle Quest: Galactrix. The game is tons of fun to play. Maybe not quite as good as the original, but definitely worth picking up.

The majority of my free time has been split between Free Realms and Habbo Hotel. I have to admit, Free Realms has really surprised me. I'm addicted to exploring the world, going on quests, and working to level up my character. I took part in the Open Beta and really enjoyed my experience with it, but after they deleted all of the Beta accounts, I was a bit irritated and quit. However, I liked the game enough that I knew I wouldn't be able to stay away for long. I still haven't bought a membership, but I've been thinking about it. Had they not cleared my account after Beta, I'd certainly be a member.

In Habbo, I spend most of my time simply earning achievements and decorating my home. I mostly keep to myself since the game is filled with punk kids. But I do have to admit they come up with some REALLY creative rooms in Habbo. I think I like Habbo because I see glimmers of VMK in it from time to time. The communities are totally different... Habbo has an older audience, less strict rules, and no Disney cutsie-ness. But functionality-wise, there are obvious similarities. Habbo is one of the very few virtual worlds I've been willing to dish out some cash to play.

E3 is in just a few days. I have to admit, over the last year or so I've been out of the loop a little bit with the gaming industry. Just been a busy year, I guess. Before my previously mentioned Puzzle Quest review, I don't even remember the last review I did. Hopefully more coming soon. Seeing all the E3 news makes me miss it a lot. I didn't miss it so much last year, since last year's E3 was a joke... but now that it's 'back', I wish I was there. Too busy with real-life, though. Oh well. Hoping to hear some good gaming announcements.

While I do miss reviewing hundreds of games, attending press only gaming events, and getting early access to tons of games, it's also nice to just take my time and play games for the enjoyment of playing a game and not for the purpose of analyzing it later on. Just gotta learn to balance it, I suppose.

Garden Party

As I mentioned a few posts back, I've been spending a lot of time exploring virtual worlds for kids. My all-time favorite was Virtual Magic Kingdom, but anyone who is familiar with it knows that Disney closed it down last summer. It was a really sad time...

Anyway, since the closing of VMK, I'd been looking for a new virtual world to call home. I've tried all sorts of worlds, like Habbo Hotel, Club Penguin, Kaneva, Build-a-Bearville, and many more. Not too long ago I came across Garden Party, which has become my new favorite.

If you've got young kids (or you're a young kid at heart), Garden Party is just perfect! The Mods are very approachable, the world is beautiful, there are plenty of neat mini games (including some educational ones for the children!), there's a safe chat filter, overall it's just tons of fun!

While a game about gardening might not sound like a lot of fun, you'll likely enjoy growing plants in order to obtain unique in game items and apparel. Most exciting of all, you never really know what kind of items you might grow, so you'll often find yourself surprised.

My only concern is with a bit of the Moderation features (I'm not sure how much chat moderation there really is) and a few bugs here and there. However, it's still in the early days of Beta and surely deserves a chance!

http://www.gardenpartyworld.com/