Archive for June, 2010

3DS=Yes, Edward Barbie=No

June 17th, 2010

Yes

  • Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword – Wii MotionPlus and a guaranteed stylish storyline
  • GoldenEye remake – When I was a Resident Assistant at NAU, the guys in my hallway played GoldenEye multiplayer until way past quiet hours. A remake with Daniel Craig as the voice and confirmed online matches makes this a ‘Yes’.
  • The 3DS – it has two cameras in the front to take 3D photos as well as the ability to play 3D movies and games. I saw an ad for a 3D TV last night and they were so proud of their glasses. Dorky 3D shades – No. 3DS letting you play without the need of glasses – a benefit for those of us who wear glasses already – Yes

No

  • Edward Barbie

    Just no. No. Jacob? No.

A Retro game and a Math game

June 14th, 2010

I’m a fan of the Metroid Prime video game series and appreciate the style Retro Studios added to the long-standing franchise. We’ll see during E3 tomorrow if Nintendo announces the Donkey Kong re-boot. I’ll be watching the streaming event at e3.nintendo.com at 9am tomorrow. (I’m also hoping for more info on the MotionPlus Zelda title that has been rumored.)

The library has 30 computers that are always full during lunch. I’d be interested to see students’ reactions to DimensionM, a first-person shooter (Halo and Call of Duty are examples of the genre) that pauses the action to ask Math questions. The game uses lasers and slime-ish stuff, so it doesn’t seem that violent. It’s designed with the purpose of being an educational game. I’d like to test how much Math they remember and if they’d be annoyed by the questions popping out of nowhere.

Chapter 1 of Only the Good Spy Young

June 11th, 2010

Check out the great book trailer and chapter one of the book here.

Tech for your summer vacation

June 8th, 2010

Of course the iPhone 4 would be fun, but here are some other gadgets that would be fun for this summer.


The video swim mask is as simple as it sounds: a mask that takes videos. But how cool would it be to film whatever you were swimming near? Scuba diving in shipwrecks would be awesome, since you would have both hands free to punch undead pirates and/or sharks. I had the opportunity to snorkel off the coast of Roatan years ago and have only memories to share of the underwater experience. Those are good, but I’d like to show people the barracuda that did a Maverick-to-tower fly-by past me.

Now if you plan on sleeping in this summer, then the Sleep Blaster app is not for you. But if you do have to wake up this summer and are disgruntled by the notion, you can set up your phone to respond to you yelling at it.

It also has “dynamite mode” for those people who always wanted to wake up to the sound of an explosion.

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

June 7th, 2010

During the last week of school I finished Incarceron by Catherine Fisher. It’s a blending of sci-fi and fantasy elements. Part of the plot takes place inside a living prison, complete with HAL-9000 red eyes stalking the characters’ every move. Part of the plot exists in Protocol, a forced culture shift backwards to a simpler time where people solved their problems through stabbings and poison like civilized people.

Finn lives in the prison but there are rumors that he is a starseer, someone who has actually seen the outside world. Claudia is the daughter of the prison’s warden and needs to make contact to someone inside the prison so she can avoid an arranged marriage.

The general plot points of the book don’t take too many risks. There’s no real deviation from the standard “I’m just a simple boy” “No, you’re the Chosen One” (Galileo Figero!) fantasy arc. Where Incarceron does keep your attention, though, is in its characters.

I think there’s something wrong with me. I always cheer for the villains in epic stories. Darth Vader doesn’t deserve all the bad press he gets.

The character I rooted for in the prison was the gang leader. Catherine Fisher does a great job describing him. I could picture him sitting on his throne with his food taster chained nearby, much like Jabba the Hutt. Add the villain’s superstition that he holds people’s souls in his rings and you have me intrigued.

Finn has a counter-part, Keiro. He’s Finn’s oathbrother but you never know if he’s going to betray his best friend when the opportunity arises. Keiro is uber-overconfident and struts around Incarceron as if he owns the place. Any scene with him usually has conflict and grabs your attention.

The plot does try to surprise with some character reveals of the “Oh. The hermit was actually a hero the whole time” variety, but you can see it coming. Towards the very end, though, the characters call each other by multiple names, signifying everyone’s hidden identity. It could have been the fact that I was reading during the last week of school, so there’s a potential I had temporary memory loss, but the end seemed a little confusing. It doesn’t take away from the story, but I caution my students ahead of time to pay attention as you near the last third of the book so you know who’s who.

It’s an enjoyable book that falls into the Hunger Games/Maze Runner Kids Being Stalked in an Enclosed Arena genre of fiction. If you liked those books, you should pick up Incarceron. You won’t be disappointed.

And yes, like any good YA fiction, it seems, we need a series. Book two, Sapphique, comes out this December.