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Moms for Minecraft

Some would say I’m a little biased, having received my bachelor’s degree in game design, but I firmly believe that games teach us things whether we want them to or not. This can be a blessing or a curse depending on what games you expose your children to in their most formative years.

The debate has been going a long time about whether violent games affect our kids, and I believe that in some ways they do. On the flip side, there are commercial games out there that have the potential to teach them wonderful things. As a mom and a game designer I’ve paid special attention to how the games my kids play shape them and teach them.

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Oh Gawds, Another Women In Games Post

There has been a deluge of articles, posts, comments, and general discussion about the topic of women being represented in games (and film, and television, etc.) in the recent months. Many of these have cried out for stronger or more prominent female characters. Some have been aimed at exposing over-sexualization. A few are even commentary on how some games try too hard and swing the opposite way and create a masculinized female character.

I wanted to weigh in on this subject. My opinion is just that, an opinion, but it comes from someone who raised her fist along with all the others when protesting that women have a place in games and gaming. I have fought

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Donate to Help Mini Game Reviews

First off, I would like to say thank you to all the loyal follows of Mini Game Reviews, and I hope that we have helped you decide which games you should or shouldn’t buy.

A few months ago, we discussed a couple of options to assist Mini Game Reviews in getting games for review. One option was to contact the publishers and see about receiving review copies, but this didn’t really work for me. It would

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The Mini Game Review Scoring System

We have been debating for a while now dropping the review scores completely, and creating a 3 tier scoring system where all games would be put into one of 3 categories: Good, OK & Bad. But with some games, this just wouldn’t work, so instead I have decided to try to explain the scoring system we use at Mini Game Reviews.

7,8,9 : These are the good games. Games with these scores do things well, or are great fun to play. It could be

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Why is Bioware doing ending DLC instead of a blog post?

There appears to be a lot of annoucements on the internet about Bioware producing something called the “Extended Cut”, which will be some “additional cinematic sequences and epilogue scenes”, due for release sometime during Summer 2012.

This new FREE DLC will clarify some of the questions surrounding the current ending for Mass Effect 3, Now what really puzzles me about this is: Why don’t they just do it in a Blog post?  Use words and just tell us what the ending

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Why would a company treat loyal customers like traders

I like playing games. I like buying games. I have a favourite internet shop where I buy almost all my games from.

We are a family of four (three of us live at one address), and they have a policy that means if I buy three copies of ONE game my account is then flagged as a Trader and all my account benefits and points are removed.

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Things Bioware/EA should do about the Mass Effect 3 “incident”

I’m not going to go into any real details on any of the subjects, just as a loyal Bioware/Mass Effect fan, here is a small list of things I think Bioware/EA should do.

1. As a gesture of good will, offer to match the $80,000 raised by the fans, don’t make all this about money.  Bioware/EA have more than enough money, and the kids could do with some love from a large company like Bioware/EA.

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My thoughts on the Mass Effect 3 Endings (*Spoilers*)

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR MASS EFFECT 3

Recently there has been quite an uproar concerning the ending of Mass Effect 3 (Here and here) . It’s quite interesting to see that many people getting together to ask for something to be “changed”.

It’s a very strange end. It ignores, and effectively destroys, everything you have fought and worked for in the combined three games. It’s like that saying… “There be Dragons”… but with any good story, you need to know that

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Xbox 360 Metro UI Likes & Dislikes

Microsoft have just released the the mandatory update for the Xbox 360, this is not an optional update, you have no choice in this. Here are some of my thoughts on the changes that have been made.

Likes:

  • The Metro UI is very easy to use. It feels fresh, with a nice throw back to the old Blades UI which I loved. Everything is nicely spaced out, so it’s easy to see a good overview on the apps/games and services on your console.
  • Kinect Voice is much better than in the previous dashboard, navigating through the Games Marketplace using Kinect Voice is rather fun.
  • Beacons and social network sharing is a great idea.
  • Cloud Game Sync allows you to copy the save to Cloud and let it sync, putting all your data in a safe and accessible place.
  • Love the new apps section, when more apps become available, I can see this taking off big time.
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Where do you buy your games from?

When you preorder a Game, what makes you decide where to buy from? Do you go for the shiny that the reseller offers you or do you look for the places that have great customer service?  Resellers each try to entice you in their own way, making deals with publishers that provide specific DLC to entice you to their shelves. As an example, lets have a closer look at some of the offers for the new Batman Arkahm City, which is due for release on the 21st October in the UK.

When you buy Batman Arkham City from Game/GameStation in the UK, you get the “Robin Edition”

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