There have been a lot of Kickstarter funded games getting heaps of publicity lately.  Have you backed any of them?  I like the concept provided that the good are delivered.  My husband and I backed the Shadow Run and Double Fine adventure games.  We passed on the Leisure Suit Larry and Ron Paul projects.  Have you backed a project?  If so, which ones?

Having beaten Skyrim and not thinking too highly of Benny Hin, I found this youtube video absolutely hilarious.  

I thought to myself, that would be an awesome avatar.  So I downloaded the movie using http://keepvid.com/

I then added text to the movie using Windows Movie Maker.  

After the text was in place, I converted it to a gif using this free program: http://evanolds.com/movtogif.html

And now I have this:

Those still on dialup will hate me.

Lately I've been playing with SwapNote and it's been fun sending notes back and forth between my husband and members of this site.  As fun as this system is, it can be abused by sending crude drawings or recordings containing profanity.  On the flip side, this can be a great way to share the gospel and uplift believers as well as sharing a verse or two with complete strangers.  I struggle with memorizing scripture but actually taking the time to jot it down helps rather than just reading it alone.   If you'd like to be a member of our 3DS Bible study post your friend code and let us know! 

I recently beat a game that had a questionable but unique love story.  I'm going to try and be vague so I don't give away spoilers in the game I'm talking about here.  The main characters in this title are two teenagers that are adopted siblings.  As the story progresses, they grow closer and are comfortable in each other's presence even in mixed gender bath houses. While they never begin a romantic relationship, they are encouraged to do so by many other characters in the game.  I'm all for a good love story but I found this one a bit awkward.  Perhaps my convictions stem from this verse in the Bible:

Leviticus 18:9 says Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.

What do you think?  Do you find this relationship natural or awkward?  Granted genetically there no foreseeable issues here but I still find it going against God's law.  

I have been running ChristCenteredGamer.com/CCGR.org for over ten years.  In that time we have had our fair share of scoffers and trolls who don’t understand the purpose of this site.  It is not our place to tell people what to play or not to play, but rather to inform them of what is in a game so they can make an educated purchasing decision.  Last night I was having a blast playing the casual RTS game Fate of the Pharaoh.  Given the title I was expecting references to the Egyptian culture and gods.  Not surprisingly, I did discover references to Ra the sun god and was able to earn achievements for beating his times in each level.   No big deal, I don’t mind a bit of a challenge.  While I was playing through the levels, I saw some of my villagers worshiping their idols.  I had no control over it and wasn’t asked to participate, so I continued to play on.    When I reached level fourteen, the tables turned.  Instead of gathering materials and gold for my villagers, I had to gather these resources and give them as an offering to the goddess Maat to progress to the next level.  This is where I have stopped playing the game.  Why?  Because I feel it breaks the first and second commandments.

Exd 20:2 I [am] the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.  3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.   4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth:  5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God…

 Will every Christian feel the same way?  Probably not.  However, those that will agree with me will be thankful for saving themselves $7 for this game.  For all of the non-Christians that visit this site, here’s a question for you:  Would you be equally upset playing a game not labeled as a Christian game but require you to acknowledge and worship Jesus to continue?  I bet the developers of that game would get a few complaints.  I understand that it’s not real and it’s just pixels and 1’s and 0’s etc, but so is pornography if you want to use that excuse.  If you get busted by your spouse for looking at indecent pictures I bet the 1’s and 0’s argument won’t work out too well. 

Digital or real, I don’t feel comfortable breaking the commandments of my Lord.  I refuse to play any game that forces me to pay homage to a god other than my own.  I hope you can better understand what we’re about and where I’m coming from.

In Him,

Cheryl
-ccgr-

Here's what I'm playing currently:

PC: Almost done checking out all of the classes in Dungeon Defenders.  I have a youtube video if you want to see what the game play looks like.    I'm half way through the adventure game Tales From The Dragon Mountain: The Strix, it's kind of a dud, avoid it.  I have Skyrim on pre-order, can't wait!

Wii: EA Active 2 I picked this up for $20 it's great so far, I feel half robot with the glowing accessories that monitor my heartbeat and movements.  It's giving me a good workout and after I'm done with the 9 week challenge, expect a review!

PSP: Worms Battle Islands

3DS: Currently collecting dust, waiting for Mario 3D to arrive.

DS: When time allows, I'll be firing it up and playing Final Fantasy 2.  

I never owned one of these consoles but it was truly ahead of time and died a premature death at only 18 months on the market. It sported many innovations present in modern day consoles including multiplayer gaming, a web browser and portable hand held support.  The 480p resolution was impressive back then too.   Many of the popular Dreamcast game series are still popular today including Unreal Tournament, Phantasy Star Online, Resident Evil, Soul Calibur, Quake and Dead or Alive.  At last many of the games have lived on, I wonder what console will go extinct next?

I have over 35 hours into Dragon Warrior VII and I'm still on the first disc.  I think I will have to sink 100 hours into this game before I finish it.  It's really a shame since this great game is riddled with swearing, quite a difference from the Nintendo versions I have been playing until this point.  I'm not exaggerating that every time I load up this game I encounter a swear of some sort.  da*n, bas*ard, son of a......, and hell is thrown around pretty casually too.  "Get the hell out of here" etc.  The Nintendo versions may have had 1 or 2 da*n in it max.  :\ 

This is not a get rich quick scheme but many people have made good money mining bitcoins.  What is a bitcoin you ask?  Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer currency. Peer-to-peer means that no central authority issues new money or tracks transactions. These tasks are managed collectively by the network.  New coins are generated by a network node each time it finds the solution to a difficult mathematical problem.  There will be a maximum of 21,000,000 generated bitcoins and because of this limit, bitcoins are divisible to 8 decimal places.  In other words you can send fractions of bitcoins to people.  Like many currencies the value fluctuates.  As of this blog entry its between $13 and $14 USD.

As of July 2011, there are just over 6.8 million bitcoins in existence.  New coins are slowly "mined" into existence by running a program that searches tirelessly for a solution to a very difficult math problem. When a solution is found, the user may tell everyone of the existence of this new found solution, along with other information, packaged together in what is called a "block".  Blocks contain 50 bitcoins at present. This amount is an incentive for people to perform the computation work required for block generation. Roughly every 4 years, the number of bitcoins that can be "mined" in a block reduces by 50%.  In other words, while the bounty is still 50 bitcoins, hop on this gravy train!

You have two options when it comes to mining for bitcoins.  If you have a good video card, you can try going solo and crunch numbers for weeks or months for a big payout. Or, if you prefer a steady payout, you can join a mining pool and equally share the bounty for your share of work put into it.  If you have a slower video card, a mining pool will be the only way you can stand a chance at finding the blocks before someone else does.

The better the hardware, the better the hash rates you'll get.  ATI is taking the crown here.  Here's how my systems fare at my house.

My hubby and I have quad core 860's with 5870's getting 346 Mhash/s
Our kids dual core with a 5570 is 67Mhash/s
Our myth tv pvr front-end with a 4650 gets 21.6Mhash/s 
Lastly my dual core laptop with a GeForce M230 gets 8 Mhash/s (I don't bother mining with this one)

The higher the hash rate, the more my video card contributes to solving the mathematical problem and thus giving me more of the reward.  Overclocking can increase those numbers but it will also increase the heat generated and the electricity needed to power the system.  The next hurdle is seeing if this is worth jacking up your electric bill.  With those systems in place I can get a bitcoin every 4 days.  With a bitcoin value at $14 I can make $105 a month doing this.  How much of that will get sucked up by a higher electric bill is to be determined.  For those who leave their systems on 24/7 anyway, why not have it make money for you in the process.

Once you earn a bitcoin you'll have to decide what to do with it.  I converted mine to USD using Mt. Gox. There was a .0005 fee to send my bitcoin there and then Mt. Gox took .30%.  Once I had it in USD I sent it to my dwolla account for .25 and then sent it to my bank account.  All said and done I got $13.70 of my $14.

Here are some helpful links to get started.

Bitcoin client
Python GUI Miner put this in the extra flags section: -v -w128
Slush's mining pool

 

sources: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Introduction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

 

I'm a sucker for bargain bin games and try to avoid paying full retail price when possible.  There are many great games to be found in the used game sections of GameStop and the prices of many classics are $20 or less.

For my birthday I got a used PSP 3001 for $50 and the came with Fifa 2009 and a UMD movie Treasure Hunter 2.  I had to buy an AC adapter for it.  So $65 out the door with a game and a movie isn't bad.

Since I don't play sports games I traded in Fifa 2009 and took advantage of GameStop's recent buy 2 get one free sale and picked up.  Jeanne De'arc, Final Fantasy: Crisis Core and Patapon 2.  All of these out the door was less than $15.  We went back the next day and picked up Parappa the Rapper for $6 and Lumines 2 for $5.  My last purchase was Half Minute Hero for $10 out the door after using a 20% off coupon I got for my birthday.

We also got two free games from the PSN Welcome back pack (Kill Zone and Little Big Planet)

 

So a system, AC adapter and 8 games for $101..not bad at all

The Nvidia Kal-El quad core powered tablets are looking pretty promising..I wonder how much they will cost! Check out this video where they demonstrate the difference between a dual and a quad core tablet.

 

It's been ages since I played Lucas Arts' Tie Fighter.  NaCLBox is a DOS box that runs right in your Google Chrome browser and does not require you to install any plugins.  All you have to do is enable the Native Client by typing about:flags in your address bar.  Once you do that you can play demos of The Secret of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Sam and Max Hit the Road, Duke Nukem 1 & 2 (I don't remember the content in those!) and more.

Nintendo has threatened to brick 3DS devices that have been modified by hardware or software. To protest, Defective by Design will be sending bricks with a note to the chairman of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aime.

What do you think about this?  Does Nintendo have a right to render devices we purchase as useless?  Last time I checked, 3DS's are still selling for $250.   Once we buy the device isn't it ours to do as we please? Is it wrong for me to put a sticker on my DS? Can I change the casing if it cracks or scratches?  We have replaced the scratched screen on our DS Lite, we have cleaned the broken trigger buttons in an attempt to repair them.  If the repairs fail it's our own fault, I don't blame Nintendo.   I can understand this tinkering voids the warranty.  If the system broke while it was under warranty I would have send it back to them to fix.

I understand that people modify the hardware beyond standard maintenance. Perhaps for these individuals their system should be blocked from the Nintendo network so they don't interfere with "vanilla" systems.  I think bricking the device by rendering it useless is going too far. Here's an quote from the Terms of service (chapter 3).  I think they mean business:

"You understand that the Nintendo 3DS System specifications and the Nintendo 3DS Service are constantly evolving and that we may update or change the Nintendo 3DS System or the Nintendo 3DS Service in whole or in part, without notice to you. Such updates may be required for you to play new Nintendo 3DS games, enjoy new features, or continue to access the Nintendo 3DS Service. After the Nintendo 3DS menu is updated, any existing or future unauthorized technical modification of the hardware or software of your Nintendo 3DS System, or the use of an unauthorized device in connection with your system, will render the system permanently unplayable."

What about software modifications?   That's awfully vague.  Chances are the DS Cart system I'm using is violating the terms of service.  The kicker is that I am not using it to pirate games.  I use it so I have all my games with me and don't have to worry about losing them.  Have you seen how small these DS cartridges are?  Again I don't agree with hacking the system to ruin the game play for other people.  I think Xbox has taken the proper approach to block non standard systems from the network.

Has Nintendo gone too far?

 

We just posted our Crysis 2 review today. As fun as this game is I was taken aback by all the language in it. It's not just this game but a trend I'm seeing in many games we've been reviewing lately.  What gives? Yeah I get it, in stressful situations people swear, it may add some realism but to me I think it's exaggerating a bit.  I hang around non-Christians and they don't drop the F bomb every 3 minutes.  I miss the options to disable swearing and blood, can we have those back please?  Or should I say "Can we have those *#&$^'n options back please?"

It took a lot of preparation and patience to get this new site up and running. I hope you like the new look and if you have any suggestions, feedback or encouragement, I'm all ears!

God Bless!

Cheryl

Wii: Epic Mickey (I'm playing in small doses, I'm not a console gamer!)
PC: Magicka (frustrated over stability issues) Baron Wittard Nemesis of Ragnarok (stuck and no walkthroughs yet for this adventure game)
On the go: Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls (GBA) Beat FF1 playing FF2 need to grind.  I got DQVI on pre-order!

I'm sure not many people were interested in a feed of our seldom updated FAQs and Walkthroughs.  The RSS feed now points to computer reviews.  Enjoy!  When we migrate to the new site, the console and PC reviews will most likely be merged.  Yay!

I beat my first Final Fantasy game.  I just finished the GBA version of Final Fantasy.  It was pretty easy, I got my characters up to level 65 before tackling the final boss who I beat on my first try.  Next I'm going to play a few PC games courtesy of GamersGate and I look forward to Dragon Quest 6 coming out next month.  After those I'll tackle Final Fantasy 2!

Okay I admit it...I hack my gold in Majesty 2 games.  I use a free program called Cheat Engine.  It's pretty easy to use.  Make sure you go through the tutorial.  Here's what I do for Majesty 2:

1. Launch Cheat Engine
2. Launch Majesty 2
3.  Start your game and take note on the amount of gold you have. (Save your game!)
4.  Alt-Tab and go back to Cheat Engine.  Choose the Majesty 2 process.  
5.  Type in the Gold value, select Float for scan type and click the First Scan button. Wait for it to finish.
6.  Go back to Majesty 2 and when the gold changes go back to Cheat Engine.
7.  Type in the new Gold value and click on Next Scan.  When it finishes you should see 2 memory addresses.
8.  Double click on those addresses and they will go to the bottom.  Double click on them again and enter the desired amount of gold.  999999 works for me.  :)