It's a world of adventure, where you get deal damage with the words that you spell.

I have a kind of love/hate relationship with the game company Popcap.  I say this because I absolutely love the games they make, but I hate the amount of time that said games steal from my life.  The most recent offering from Popcap, Bookworm Adventures 2 continues this trend.  Plants vs. Zombies set a very high bar for “casual” games. So can a bookworm hope to leap it? In some ways yes.

When I was first explaining the concept of Bookworm Adventures Volume 2 to a coworker, they got a little confused.  Like any adversarial game, there are adversaries to conquer, in Bookworm you do damage with words.  My coworker thought that meant you were supposed to use hurtful words to vanquish the enemy.  While that may be an excellent idea, it’s not exactly on target.  In Bookworm, you deal damage in the same way you score points in Scrabble (sans the double and triple word scores).  Just like in Scrabble, you have a tile set to spell your words from.  In Bookworm, you get 16 letters and the longer the word you spell, the more damage you will do.  For instance, a word like pretentiously, is going to do a lot of damage.  Some letters deal more damage than others, just like some letters score more points in Scrabble. (more…)

I just wanted to write a quick post because we got a note into the newsroom today about the tech blog.  This is it.  I do not have a dedicated link, like you may find for Bill’s blog on the top of the main homepage, but an undaunted reader should know there are other ways to find the tech posts.

The easiest is to go here: My Posts (http://blogs.woodtv.com/author/mattschuler). You can also go to the entertainment section of the woodtv.com blogs (http://blogs.woodtv.com/category/entertainment/).  There you’ll find a chronological list of the postings, which you’ll notice Aaron Lafferty frequents more than I.  You can also find the five most recent posts on the homepage, but my posts reside there for only a short time usually.

My most recent reviews were for the BlackBerry Curve 8900 and the Palm Pre (which actually came in one, two, three parts).

I also do peripheral reviews for gaming companies, I really liked the Razer Sphex (a very economical gaming-grade mousing surface that has an adhesive on the bottom of it to stick to your desk), and I found the Logitech G19 gaming keyboard stunning, if impractical. My favorite mouse right now is the Razer Mamba, though I use a Razer Lachesis myself.

I’ve built a PC for the blog and listed out components. I saw the future of the home phone.  My ears have been blasted by a nice set of cans, and I’m working on getting another pair of headphones for review.  I’ve also met an android, even though it was encapsulated within a phone (the T-Mobile G1).  I’ve also been caught in a storm (which would have been a better name for my BlackBerry Storm review in hindsight).  I also told people not to buy a Blu-Ray player, though I am wavering on that declaration (I still need cheaper movies).  I’m in love with DVR’s.

When it comes to games, I’ve been Left 4 Dead, Soiled My Plants and gotten stuck in a World of Goo.  I’ve done battle with Demigod, seen the Fallout and witnessed the Dawn of War, but never delivered the multiplayer review on it (which could change seeing as they just released a rather massive patch for the game adding much depth).

You can also follow me on Twitter, where I post immensely more than I do here (probably because it’s limited to 140 characters).

I’m working on a review right now for Bookworm Adventures Volume 2 (a great game for wordsmiths or their apprentices), and just today opened up a HP Mini (a netbook provided for review by Verizon).  I also recently was able to sign up for a Google Voice account and will be posting my thoughts (so far I love it).

As for my original introduction post, you can find it here. I hope this was helpful.

Even the menu seems epic. (click to enlarge)

I’ve taken my time with the Demigod review.  I wanted to make sure that the game I enjoyed playing, the game underneath all of the issues that plagued its launch, got a fair shake.

The issues were bad enough for the Stardock CEO Brad Wardell to post a blog called “Demigod: So what the hell happened?” a couple of weeks back.

I feel it’s had enough time though, and that playing the game now and offering my review gives an accurate view of what the game is like now that Stardock and Gas Powered Games have had a chance to get things under control. (more…)

The only thing between your brains and zombies are the plants on your lawn.

The tagline for Popcap’s latest offering is ‘Get Ready to Soil Your Plants.”  Plants vs. Zombies as a concept is something I’ve never seen before.  Sure, I’ve fought off zombies, in fact I’ve had a number of posts recently fawning over Left 4 Dead.  I’ve played Tower Defense games (careful with that link, hours will be gone before you know it).  I’ve even planted flowers, but to combine the concept in a game I’d be okay with my daughter playing?  Amazing!

Maybe you’ve seen the music video with its catchy phrases (’There’s a zombie on your lawn,’ ‘I know your type: Tall, dark and dead, you want to bite the petals off of my head.’), and if you haven’t you should really take the time to watch it because it’s hilarious.  I know when I first saw the trailer that I had to play the game. (more…)

Go sign up for the beta!

The StarCraft 2 Beta Opt-In is now available!

From the Battle.net forums “The StarCraft 2 beta-test period is coming in the months ahead! If you’d like a chance to participate, now’s the time to let us know. Simply log in to your Battle.net account, and click “Beta Profile Settings” to go through the new beta opt-in process and upload a snapshot of your system specs. During this process, you’ll also have the opportunity to opt in to future betas for other Blizzard Entertainment games. Please note that even if you’ve opted in to our betas previously, you’ll need to complete this new process and upload your current system specs to have a chance to be invited.”

There’s an FAQ on the Battle.net forum, but read that after you sign up for the beta! Hurry! Go!

Kill or be killed. Rather, kill for as long as you can, but you're going to die eventually.

Valve continues to impress me.  The company delivers updates to games its released for free.   For Team Fortress 2, those updates come in the form of class changes, new game modes, new maps and other various goodies.  For its Left 4 Dead players, Valve’s done it again.

The Survival mode was released this past Tuesday to the PC and Xbox 360 as a free update.  What’s amazing to me, is that almost any other company would have charged for an update of this quality.  In fact, most do.  I look to Fallout 3 as a great example of a game that’s charged for updates, but Valve goes the other route.  It adds a new game mode and releases new maps for free.

The patch actually has more to offer than just a new game mode too. (more…)

The single-player campaign is truly something epic, with multiple mission options that keep you coming back.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2  takes what I thought of the real-time strategy genre and transforms it.  This is definitely the good kind of transformation, it’s the Optimus Prime kind of transformation.  Dawn of War 2 is a lot of fun, and when I turned the game off I wanted to come back.

I’m breaking the review up into two parts, the single-player game and the multiplayer game.  The reason is fairly simple, the two modes are fairly different.  The multiplayer mode is more of your traditional fare for RTS’s while the single-player mixes in some roleplaying and tactical elements.

The other reason is fairly obvious, I just spent a good amount of time beating the single-player game and it was so engrossing I wanted to write about it right away.  It combines great story-telling elements with great gameplay elements and you can’t go wrong with that. (more…)

When the hunter pounces your friend, you should shoot it. (click to enlarge)

A big content patch is coming next week to Valve’s Left 4 Dead.  The patch will add a new game mode, dubbed ‘Survival’ and official versions of Versus maps ‘Dead Air’ and ‘Death Toll.’

On the Left 4 Dead Blog, a post from Kerry Davis and Scott Dalton said Survival mode will be more than just trapping players in a small part of a map, unleashing the hordes and recording the longest time.

Valve wants Survival games to last less than ten minutes.  It will be a mode of play “distinct from Campaign or Versus.”

Davis and Dalton wrote about the pacing offered in a Survival map, saying they needed “to define as precisely as possible how the difficulty ramps up during the course of a round.” (more…)

Terran vs. Zerg

StarCraft 2’s original Battle Report was an epic battle between Terran and Protoss armies.   Now Blizzard has released a second Battle Report with a battle between the Terran and Zerg.

This time around the battle takes place on the map Blistering Sands.  Two of StarCraft 2’s game balance designers are pitted against one another.

There’s commentary from Dustin Browder and Robert Simpson.

Check out the video on Blizzard’s site for 22 minutes of gameplay footage.

StarCraft 2 is currently in alpha, hopefully it’s soon headed to the beta.

Recently, there was a Q&A session on BlizzCast 8 that had multiple questions that were StarCraft 2 related.   Check out my post on Gaining Aerial Superiority in StarCraft 2 for my writeup.

Questions?  Hit up the comments section below, shoot me a note on Twitter, or send an email to matt(dot)schuler(at)woodtv(dot)com.

A Zerg army tries to break through a well-fortified Terran base. (Image Courtesy: Starcraft2.com)

There is one game I’m looking forward to, more than any other.  That game is StarCraft 2.  The sequel to the best selling real-time strategy ever, and a game that has changed at least one world culture. (It’s also my favorite game of all time.)

I’ve been looking for an excuse to write about it, and tucked away in BlizzCast 8 is some Q&A with the game’s Lead Designer, Dustin Browder.

Browder was asked to give some insight into game mechanics, especially the current setup for air units and their role in the game.

“Well obviously each of the races behaves differently with how they use their air units,” said Browder.  “The Zerg, obviously the mutalisk is still a powerful part of the Zerg air force and still used for a lot of fast raiding, a lot of sudden attacks from different directions to keep the enemy off balance and of course in mass in the end game you can obviously use mutalisks for mass air assaults.”

It’s good to see that the designers are keeping some of the traditional strategies alive, but it’ll be interesting to see how the new units counter.  For instance, Browder talked about how a new Terran air unit differs from the Wraith in the original series. (more…)