The Game Dame

I've recently discovered a cute Poker-RPG hybrid called Governor of Poker 2 over at Big Fish Games. The reason I say it's an RPG is that it's a bit more than just a straight Texas Hold'em poker game like this game for the Xbox, but it's a hybrid because it's not quite a full-blown role playing game either.

The premise is that you're trying to become governor of Texas by buying all the towns in the state. You buy towns with the money you win by participating in tournaments, cash games, and challenge games. Winning these games also increases your reputation throughout the state. Get your rep high enough and you can challenge the governor himself and if you win, you can become Governor. Along the way, you can buy hats, buildings, horses, and stagecoaches. You can even take out a no-interest loan when you lose all your money.

The speed of the game is customizable. You can have lightning rounds if you want, but I keep it on the slowest setting and it goes fast enough for me. The animations are cute. For example, if you bluff your way to a win over someone, they will get "Steamy" which causes, well, steam to shoot out of their ears (and also impairs their judgment).

On the negative side, the game's tutorial doesn't cover general poker strategy. I use this card as a cheat sheet cuz I'm a total poker noob, but it only helps with deciding whether to fold; it doesn't help with betting. If you like playing poker against other live people, there isn't an online option. However, as a poker rookie, I find the artificial intelligence to be pretty good at simulating various poker personalities — and kicking my butt.

I'm not a huge fan of poker, but when it's wrapped up as cutely as this little game, it's quite fun. If you are interested in Governor of Poker 2, you can download a free trial that lets you play it free for 60 minutes. If you decide to buy, the full game is only $6.99.

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Posted via email from Inside Natalie’s Noggin

A few interesting bits of gaming news…

Xbox Live subscription prices are going up — drag bummer. The annual Gold member subscription is going up to $60 from $50. To put it in perspective, that's a 20% increase! That's essentially $5 per month. Really? Wizard101 & LOTRO are $9.99/month with MUCH better gaming and more opportunities for interaction. I don't really play Xbox games with other people (why won't anyone play Magic The Gathering with me??!? I suck! It's an easy win!) so I probably won't renew my subscription. It's kinda crazy that they are upping the price when both Sony & Nintendo charge nothing for their services. The only thing that would change my opinion is if Blockbuster goes bankrupt. In that case, I'll seriously consider getting Gold because of the streaming Netflix option.

In more Xbox news, they've made some "enhancements" to the wireless controller. Changed D-pad? *Yawn*. Took the colors off the buttons? WTF!? Sometimes I just press based on the color I can see out of the corner of my eye and now you're taking the colors off? WHY????? Dude. This is a retarded change. Check out this hyped up Microsoft freak telling us how happy we should be:

Lastly, just a a reminder that Lord of the Rings Online goes free to play on Friday September 10, a week from tomorrow. Woot!

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Mashable is reporting that later in September something called the Starcraft 2 Gameboard will be released that will allow just such a possibility.

Frankly, I'll believe it when I see it. Blizzard isn't one to let 3rd parties get away with this kind of stuff. Don't hold your breath.

Starcraft 2 official site.

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• Starcraft 2 Gamerboard lets you remotely control the game from your iDevice (geek.com)

Posted via email from Inside Natalie’s Noggin

1. The Food Pornographer — takes pictures of every meal eaten, writes food-obsessed updates. Sample status: "OMG I could TOTALLY go for Starbucks right now."

2. The Situation — gives a play-by-play description of whatever he's doing all day, often offers TMI, statuses frequently found on Lamebook.com. Sample status: "Wow, I just took the giantest poo!"

3. Sally Field — she likes you, she really does. And she likes everything you post. Rarely posts an update herself, but when she does, she likes it too. Sample status: Thumbs up.

4. The Selfish Philanthropist — gives away game items to everyone on his friends list, whether they play that game or not, implicitly begging for items in return. Inspired the "Hide this person's updates?" setting. Sample message: "Frodo has sent you a pregnant hedgehog. Say thank you by sending him one back."

5. The Socialist — equity for all… in the form of silence. Although she tries to rack up as many friends as possible, she never posts. She probably doesn't even know she belongs to Facebook. Sample status: "Wait… what?"

6. The Memester — only posts links, often to lolcats, viral videos, or outrageous political stories. Rarely offers commentary and has no filter between her mouse and "Share on Facebook?" button. Sample status: "Gandalf has shared a link to 'Tea Partiers Protest Gollums in Mordor'."

7. The Poker Face — just sends pokes. Makes you want to poke him in real life the next time you see him. By "poke" I mean "slug" and by "real life" I mean "face."

8. The Messenger — uses Facebook as his primary means of communication with the world, eschewing email, phone and IM. Sample email: "Aragorn has sent you a message on Facebook."

9. The Killer App — installs every existing Facebook app and invites you to join them too. Has probably had her identity stolen several times. Sample wall posting: "Galadriel has invited you to become neighbors in Frontierfarmpetmallratville!"

10. The Paparazzo — takes pictures of everything:  her cat, her boobs, her parking space. Enjoys making "fabulous!" mashups with Photoshop Elements.  Not a good combination with The Situation (item 3 above). Sample status: "My new tramp stamp. It's the third one up."

11. The Road's Collar — couldn't spell a word correctly to save his life. Sometimes these folks intend to spell words wrong "bCuz iz kewl 2 wryt n code", but 9 times out of 10 they wouldn't know how to write it correctly anyway. Sample status:  "Your so retraded!"

12. Conan the Grammarian — goes around correcting everything the Road's Collar writes. Sample comment: "It's you're not your, dumbass."

Posted via email from Inside Natalie’s Noggin

All you old skool gaming geeks can love your iPhone even more now that you can play your favorite (nearly antique) games on its mobile platform. Mashable’s article, 10 Classic PC Games That Found New Life on the iPhone, has the full list with screenshots but here are some of my favorites.

• Myst – Man, I was addicted to this game. I was also incredibly frustrated by it since it came before the says of walkthrough guides.

• The Secret of Monkey Island – I love Tim Schafer’s games. This adventure game was so silly and fun, especially after the mindf**k that was Myst, that I instantly fell in love with everything Mr. Schafer did. Well, almost everything. (I forgive you, Tim, for Brütal Legend. Really, I do.)

• Rogue – Every time I think of this game I crack up laughing. The first time I played it, I was so terrified of being in a dungeon and thinking that THIS THING — this letter “d” — that was immediately standing right next to me. After my seemingly triumphant victory, I’ll never forget those sad words on the screen, “You’ve killed your little dog.”

And now there is an everything-old-is-new-again game called Frotz, based on those old text-based adventure games. I don’t have an iPhone but you can bet Frotz would be one of my first apps when I get one.

I’m not sure if these games are (or will be) also ported to Android. If I hear more, I’ll let you know.

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Posted via email from Inside Natalie’s Noggin

In a press release, Lord of the Rings Online finally set a roll-out date for their Free To Play offering, set for September 10, 2010. I'm so excited because that's just in time for my birthday! Last month I tried the 10-day free trial and got both a Minstrel and a Rune-Keeper up to level 15. I really enjoyed playing the Minstrel, so I'd like to continue playing at some point.

Their strategy sounds much better than the usual F2P model, close to what Wizard 101 offers.

• You can play up to level 50 for free.
• Premium (purchasable) things include "expansion packs, premium content, additional character slots, potions, character customization". The store is integrated into the game.
• There's a subscription offering that they are calling "VIP". They haven't announced the pricing on it, but it sounds like what current subscribers are getting now, plus "a monthly allotment of points to spend in the new LOTRO Store."

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Posted via email from Inside Natalie’s Noggin

Posted via email from Inside Natalie’s Noggin

Okay peeps, do any of you ride your bikes around (your) town? Well, I've started a free customized map to help folks find a place to lock up your bike when they're running errands around town.

And I want YOU to contribute! Just send me your email address and I'll add you as a collaborator on the map. Just take pictures, mark the map, and let's build an empire! Just leave a me comment below or the Park My Bike blog.

Even if you don't want to do it yourself, please share with your friends in case they'd get some use out of it. Thanks!

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Continuing on the beverage theme from last week…

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