Greetings, 2010!

Two quick resolutions:

  • In one year, be at or below 180 pounds.
  • Find at least 15 minutes each day to read to my son.

Also, two quick games I forgot to mention in yesterday’s post:

  • The West is a web game that, all in all, isn’t that good.  You set your character to go around the old west, doing odd jobs and sometimes fulfilling quests.  You can join a town of other people and build up the shops and other buildings in the town.  You can duel other players.  That’s about it.  But I’ve been playing it, for an hour or so total each day, for the past few months.  This is mainly due to the fact that a group of co-workers play it and discussing our latest exploits in the west has become a major topic of conversation.
  • Surviving High School is an iPhone game made by EA.  Centered around a group of students who go to the fictional Centerscore High School, it manages to deliver a fresh episode each week that promises at least one LOL moment and many little chuckles.  The characters are lovingly created high school archetypes and though the gameplay is limited to a few minigames and mostly dialogue choices, I’ve found myself making time for each new episode and playing several multiple times and watching the different dialogue choices unfold.  What attracts me most with this game is, like the MySims franchise, the characters.  It’s clear that even for this budget iPhone title, the universe these high school kids live in and their backstories have been given some design love.

Also I played Civ 4 for an ungodly number of hours today.  And I’m this close to unifying China!  Through excessive military force, of course.