Red Dead Redemption was keeping me pretty busy until Lovefilm sent me Darksiders… this was a title I didn’t know much about but had seen some good feedback on.  I started playing it and now can’t stop, it’s a really well made title.  Sort of a mix of God of War and a Zelda game, and it works really well…so much so I think its going to keep me off Red Dead until I have finished it.

Eve Online is also making a come back, or at least I am going to try and fit playing it into my schedule… not sure if it’s going to work but I hope so.  Problem is Crackdown 2 is out this week…

Well it has come around quickly as I expected but from Monday of next week I lose my internet and the flat move is a go.

Going to be a busy week, but once done I have the wait for ADSL to be installed. I have prepared for this, and now have the God of War Collection and Heavy Rain to playthrough.  I will hopefully also pick up Red Dead Redemption!  All of these should keep me going until I can get back online

I had really better start packing…

This week has had the following…

A well run team of Medic and an Assault (hi CrazyHippo) happily taking on a whole enemy team and winning, alot. These games of stompage also revealed my Medic is able to absorb an insane amount of damage! Me also finding out that Robotics are a fun class to play when played right.

Getting all my gear in order and loaded into my carrier in Eve Online so I can finally jump over to where my new corp is so I can get involved once again in playing Eve properly.

Realising that Uncharted 2 is one of the best made games I have played so far, I am looking forward to completing this!

Realising that playing a video game character in Ghostbusters the game might not be as fun as being a real Ghostbuster, but its close enough for now!

Hopefully this weekend I can pick up a copy of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing and enjoy some good old fashioned kart racing on the 360 with the kids, watching them fight over being Sonic should be fun…

It is going to be hard to tear myself away from playing Uncharted 2 as that game is truly amazing, but hopefully I can blast through Ghostbusters pretty quickly.

On top of both of these I still need to get myself organised in Eve by getting all my gear into my carrier and jumping it over to where the actual corp is so I can get playing properly again. I also want to play some more Global Agenda as my medic is now very close to hitting level 30 and I want to get my recon up as well.

4-5 months ago I was moaning that I had nothing to play… just goes to show that gamers are never happy unless they are moaning about something

Anyway..  this weekend I experienced first hand (not for the first time mind) how games can actually help kids learn and not from those ‘eudugames’ you get out there either, shock horror, proper games!

First up, Little Big Planet.  A game that should need little introduction but in case you have been living under a rock this is a PS3 game that lets you take your custom made Sack Boy (cute huh) over various platform based levels in a bid to get through them in one piece.  The main strength this game boasts is its powerful level editor, this is a tool even I struggle to get to grips with yet leave it in the hands of a six year old for a while and they start to use their imagination and also start to learn.  It wasn’t long before he was using the in game physics engine to experience what size objects can hold other ones up (usually to get his Sack Boy squashed on purpose!) and setting up a little race that even included text triggered at the beginning and end of the levels.  The level was obviously not of the same quality you see created by other users but come on he is only six after all!  The point is he was actively using his imagination to try and create something while having a blast at the same time, how anyone can possible say this sort of thing is bad for a developing child is beyond me.

Second up is an iPhone game called Labyrinth (iTunes link), now I got his free during the iTunes 12 days of Xmas promotion and hadn’t really touched it since however the same six year old as above found in on my phone and discovered that you could also make levels for the game on your PC and download them straight to your iPhone to play them.  To create a level you visit this site with the download code you get in the app and get creating, cue another few minutes of a very happy six year old making all sorts of odd levels and then trying to complete them, each time learning what will and won’t work.  Not quite as complicated as Little Big Planet but the principle is the same.

Now I’m not saying go out and let your kids play the latest Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty if they aren’t old enough, just don’t taint all games with the same brush as there are plenty of games out there that can encourage a young child to use their brain.  Just make sure its in small doses, advice I should probably listen to myself but nevermind