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Donate to Child’s Play Charity This Christmas

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I know it’s Christmas Eve, and you’re likely to be extremely busy today, but if you can spare a few minutes and a few bucks, please donate to the Child’s Play Charity. There are a lot of great causes you can support this holiday season, but as gamers, this one is a great one to get behind. Child’s Play has helped raise over $7 million dollars in donations of toys, video games, books and cash for sick kids in children’s hospitals around the world.

I have been donating to my local children’s hospital through Child’s Play for the last few years now and I’ll continue to support the program for as long as it’s around. You don’t have to follow my lead if you don’t want to, but if you’re got some extra holiday spirit to share, here’s one more option.

Girlfriend Gaming: We Play SingStar Vol. 2

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SingStar has been the definitive video game karaoke experience for quite some time. The series has sold millions of copies around the world, while leaving all of its imitators in the dust. Though Steff and I are no strangers to video game karaoke, we’ve never actually played SingStar until recently, when she picked up SingStar Vol. 2 for the PlayStation 3. Was the game the perfect center-stage for our duets, or were we a few years too late to the party?

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2010 Year in Review: A Year of Girlfriend Gaming

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Back when I started this series, my girlfriend was in a different place as far as video games go. Steff has always liked video games, but never got into them on a serious level. Even though I’m a life-long hardcore gamer, it wasn’t (and will never be) a priority to me that she be a hardcore gamer too. I value her personal tastes and interests far too much to mess with the amazing person that she already is. My first Girlfriend Gaming post was about my perspective on this very subject.

Since I kicked off the series, my girlfriend has become much more invested in the medium. She now has about 20 games for her Wii. She also now has a PlayStation 3 with almost 10 games. On top of that, she’s playing or has shown interest in a number of hardcore games, such as Batman: Arkham Asylum, God of War, Bioshock and Assassin’s Creed. I’m sure that last point will make many a gamer guy jealous, but sorry, you can’t have her. It’s great that she’s enjoying games more and I’ll always support her with any interest she gets into. So why is it then, that I feel like I’ve partially failed as a gamer boyfriend?

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Girlfriend Gaming: What She Wants for Christmas

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Last week, my girlfriend and I exchanged Christmas wish lists. Unlike mine, which was comprised almost exclusively of video games, only one appeared on her list. Not to say that there’s only one game she wants, but our priorities are very much different. Santa will do his best to get her what she’s asking for.

She gave me the blessing to share with you some of the games she’s eying this holiday season. Besides the one on her formal list, we’ve gone shopping recently and she’s pointed out a few titles she’d like to get a hold of. Is your girlfriend/boyfriend interested in any of these?

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2010 Year in Review: Let’s Talk About the Year’s Best Games

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2010 has been an awesome year for gaming. Across pretty much every platform and genre, we had new AAA titles to play throughout the year. Some of the highlights I can think of off the top of my head include Mass Effect 2, God of War III, StarCraft II and Angry Birds, though I’m sure there are dozens of other games worth mentioning.

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2010 Year in Review: I’m Just One Guy

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For the last few months, I’ve been kicking around the idea of writing a series of 2010 year in review posts to wrap things up. In my head, I thought the idea was great. When it actually came down to translating those thoughts into posts, it got a bit dicey.

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Girlfriend Gaming – The Co-op Adventures of 50 Cent and Tony Yayo

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As I watched my girlfriend shoot up dozens of terrorists in 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, I longed to join in on the fun. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t feature local co-op, which is par for the course for this style of game. Instead, I picked up my own copy and we recently had the opportunity to play online co-op together. Without spoiling anything (as if anyone cares about the ‘amazing’ story contained in this game) we started playing at the point just before you fight a helicopter, and ended our session just after we shot down the third helicopter. Yes, that plays out as ridiculous as it sounds.
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An Open Letter to Santa

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Dear Santa,

Let’s cut to the chase. You know I’ve been a good boy and you’re a generous guy. You know you want to leave me something nice under the Christmas tree, but I’m a terrible person to get gifts for. I have a bad habit of purchasing everything I want before anyone has a chance to give it to me.

It doesn’t have to be that difficult, especially with my help. If you click through to the rest of this post, I’ll give you a few suggestions.

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Girlfriend Gaming – She Plays 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand

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My girlfriend wasted no time in building up her PlayStation 3 game catalogue. After just 24 hours of buying the console, she had already obtained six games. Her system came bundled with NHL 11 and Infamous. She then went out and bought Batman: Arkham Asylum, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Bioshock and most curiously, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand. When she sat down in front of her new PS3 and chose what game to play first, the choice was clear to her. It did not involve hockey, super powers, caped crusaders, plasmids or Snake Eyes. Instead, she christened her PS3 with desert cities, a non-Indiana-Jones crystal skull and Tony Yayo.

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Girlfriend Gaming – Hands-On With Kirby’s Epic Yarn

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I fell in love with Kirby’s Epic Yarn from the moment I saw the debut trailer at E3. The art style and creative gameplay I saw in that trailer really wowed me. The moment after I saw that trailer, I sent pictures and videos over to my girlfriend, who I thought would love it just as much as I did. Turns out, I was wrong.

She had some concerns about how the art style would translate into gameplay. In particular, she thought that the fabric aesthetic might be gimmicky at best and detrimental at worst, especially since you can see through Kirby and many of the other characters. It’s been out for a while now, but we finally got a chance to play it for ourselves.

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