Stephanie "Hex" Bendixsen is a host on the Australian TV shows Good Game and Good Game Spawn Point. Herself, co-host Bajo and on SP a 'robot' called D.A.R.R.E.N review games, give gaming news from Australia and around the world and feature events related to gaming. Occasionally, the field reporter Goose gives insight to the games industry and technology.
Hex is an inspiration to me as a young, vibrant female who plays games in what is largely a male-dominated industry and is in the public eye. There is a bit of a stigma about 'girl gamers' which is for the majority, untrue. Hex is someone who is refreshingly real, down to earth, young and actually 'cool'. Her knowledge of gaming history and 'skill' as a gamer is very impressive.
Hex is also 'Alternative' and unique in her style and manner. She is intelligent and articulate, which OF COURSE is important.
(Did I mention she is just as nerdy about dragons, warlocks, ninjas and magic as I am?)
Hex with Andrew Hansen, part of the Chasers and another huge inspiration and idol of mine.
P.S Now I'm 100% completely finished with school forever. Last night was my last performance through school. Also, I'm recently single, which is sad. =(
I've always felt that I identified with the Goth culture long before I actually considered myself Goth. I felt that I had 'crossed over' so to speak at around fifteen, but it could have been earlier than that. It wasn't until I was nearly seventeen that I actually said, 'yes I consider myself a Goth' when people enquired. Partly because I didn't have the self confidence to admit that I associated with a subculture that, for the most part, was view as dark, evil and dangerous by the mainstream, but as I got older I discovered the confidence to no longer let that bother me, and I hope that people around me don't associate Goth with all those bad, untrue things.
(P.S this post has been written in between playing Legacy of Kain- Defiance. I like the game, but due to poor game mechanics resulting in all sorts of faults, it is SO FRUSTRATING at times. Grrrrr
For any readers who don't know, yes I do play games. Probably, like most gamers, far more than is heathly for me, but it is something I've loved for about 15 years of my life.
If this was a social network similar to Facebook, then I'd place games way down on the list of things that are important to me after music, art, literature, history, film and possibilly philosophy. However, I consider this blog to be more honest and true than Facebook, so really games should be placed around third on my list.
My first love was Lenny's Music Toons, suprisingly a music based children's game made in 1993. So it is the same age as I am.
This was one of the games, where you had to do a puzzle of a piece of music that ranged from beginner to advanced. (Beginner was things like Row, Row your boat, Advanced was things like Jingle Bells. The melodies are all very simple, but for a 5 year old who cannot sight read music at all, they do present a challenge.)
As each piece was placed correctly, part of the song completed so far would be played, allowing you to check.
The games that probably revolutionised my life would be the Kings Quest series by Roberta Williams.
Now, I'm not going to go into detail about all of these games, as that will take forever. Let's just say that they really do show the development of game graphics and sound over time.
So they're some of the intros to some of the games. Now, I'm also going to show you some really nerdy music thing. I prefer the DOS version because that's what I played in.
It's quite amusing to hear some of the musical cues there too.
I've tried to choose videos and pictures that don't give any plot lines away.
So basically I spent my life from age 5 to age 10 playing the Kings Quest games, all Old School Putt Putt and Fatty Bear games, Age of Empires II, Harry Potter games and other cool things I could find.
Nowadays I still use a DOS box to play all of the old games that I loved as a kid.I'm a complete sucker for nostalgia, so what did you expect. I rarely buy new released games, but I will buy Alice: Madness Returns.
Oh, and I am just going to show you one of the creepiest thing in any of the Kings Quest series. This character was SO FREAKIN SCARY as a little kid!!!!! HAHAHA The music is awesome, and this part of the game is set in Ooga Booga land!!!
Squeeeeeeeee!!!
Other games that have a considerable impact on me (in a good way, though I've never been really scared or grossed out by a game) are Warlords Battlecry II, Fish Fillets, Laura Bow II, Zoombinis- Logical Journey, The Sims 2, Legacy of Kain- Defiance and Aladdin.
To show you how much I love you all, I'm going to provide you with some links to FREE not for profit fan remakes of some of the earlier Kings Quest games.
I encourage you all to try these games and if you like them then you should consider buying the originals by Sierra Online. I have played all of these any have finished the first two. Warning- The third game is, IMO, the hardest in the whole series and this remake is very hard too. My 12 year old brother finished it, but there were some puzzles that he needed to look up the solutions for.
There are rumours of more games being remade for VGA, but, naturally these things take time.
Has there been anything that you've ever been completely obsessed with all your life? Any game you still play from when you were a child?
Ok, this is a serious issue. Please be awear that I am going to post some YouTube videos and discuss some topics that may not be suitable for people under 15 years. (Given the subject matter, maybe not for 17 year olds, but I'll get to that.)
Anyway, the long and short of it is, that Australia does not have an R18+ rating for games. What this means that games that really should be classified as 'Adults only' are getting put into an MA15+ category, exposing children to things that can be unsuitable, such as sex, violence and torture. On the other hand, there have been some games that have been banned because they are unsuitable for children, but not for adults. A current example is that the Australian release of the game 'The Witcher 2- Assasin of Kings' has been modified. Instead of the character, after completing a certian task, being rewarded with sex, the character is now forced to decline the offer. Apparently, "sex as a reward" is not considered suitable for childern.
Um, hello, what about all of the mature adults who want to play the full game, unedited and whole?
"In the original version your character Geralt was given the choice of accepting sex ‘as a reward’ for successfully completing this particular side quest. The Australian Classification Board originally refused classification as they deemed the inclusion of ‘sex as a reward’ as not suitable for an MA15+ classification.
The change is only minor, in that the character choice is now made automatically for him. The character and the side quest are still in the game but presented in a slightly different context. No other changes have been made and this change has no impact on gameplay, storyline or character development." Namco Bandai told Kotaku why this modification was necessary. source
"WILL THERE BE DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF THE WITCHER 2?
The Witcher 2 will have the same content worldwide. There will be no regional differences aside from
the languages. And no censored versions – so no wondering about importing the game, nudity
patches, etc." CD Projekt wrote in their April 2011 source
Now this also brings up this issue of Australia's ridiculiously over priced games. One walk into a game store and you will see PC games for over a hundred dollars, which is ridiculous. For a newly released game I wouldn't, and coudn't, afford to pay more than $80 at more. (I'm not the best example though, as I generally buy games that are pre-2006 )
It is far more cheaper for someone to import the game from overseas than buy it in Australia and are then able to get a whole game without censors or edits, which damages the economy.
In case you haven't realised, I, and most of the gaming population in Australia, are in full support of Australia getting an R18+ classification. In the same vein as other forms of entertainment, such as films, games can, and most definatly do, contain content that may be extreme. The biggest difference is that more often than not the player is actively contributing to the violence surrounding the game, impacting on the brain at a greater degree. There has been research surrounding children's exposure to violence at a young age, for example, here.
Ok, so I am going to leave you with some YouTube videos. =)
The first is the trailer for one of my favourite games and the second is the first trailer of three for the sequal to be released in June (So excited).
Now, see those numbers at the start?
Yes, take note, and of course enjoy.
What do you think? Should there be an R18+ rating for games in Australia?
xxx Lilly
Edit: I probably should point out that the examples I've mentioned aren't exactly the criteria for an R18+ rating. The criteria is most defiantly the important part. Like, whether drug use is included, or brutal murder. The decision to rate a game is based on it's impact on the viewer, so some games that are more violent may have a lower rating for reasons such as killing dead humans reanimated as zombies as opposed to killing living humans who are diseased. You get the picture.
I begun playing this game over six months ago, so I am very familar with the gameplay. This is also my first game review, so I am choosing something I am familar with. I have to admit that I have also played the iPhone version, but much of the gameplay is different as well as the overall gameplay (using your finger instead of a mouse). Please only consider this to be a review of the PC version.
The game, overall, has a perfect mix of cute, cartoony graphics and a slightly macarbe, spooky style. This makes it prefect for teenagers, kids and adults. There is no violence or blood, however when the zombie's head falls off you can see a red neck with a white spinal cord. The game, in my opinion, has revolutionised tower defence games by using colourful, intriguing graphics, innovative gameplay and concepts and having a large amount of character and charm.
Plants vs Zombies is a tower defence game, but it is not like most others. Instead of having multiple paths for the adversary to travel along, it is divided up into five rows, each with a zombie or zombies attacking.
You (mostly) play by planting plants down to stop the zombies from eating your brains. As the levels progress, tougher zombies, or zombies with special abilities, begin to advance and thus more plants are released. A new plant is made available after each level, and this immediate reward is a big part of what makes this game so addictive. Each level gets progressively harder, so the first few levels are really easy. The game gently eases you in.While the basic concept of the main levels remains the same, every five levels there is an arcade level, which breaks up the gameplay and adds a good change of pace. At the start of the game you select seeds to plant. You have a limited number of seed slots, and the selection of seeds can determine your success with the level. This presented a problem in some of the arcade style levels where plants would be presented on a conveyor belt. Sometimes there would be no appropriate plants available at the start and then the zombies would eat your brains!!!
The musical score, which is varied and can easilly be muted, is really good. It contains elements of latin, big band, and pop with a somewhat spooky feel. My favourite is the 'Night music'. As a big wave approaches, the music intensifies, drawing the player in. The composer, Shigihara, also performed the music video during the credits.
The game is really fun while you are continuing to unlock plants and minigames, but once everything is completed and unlocked, the replayability really looses it's value.
Now, there are heaps of minigames. The minigames is actually what I spent most of my time playing. All of the minigames are different, and each possess their own challenges. Some of them are really difficult, for example there is one minigame whereall the zombies are invisible. Another minigame is when everything (including the music) is sped up. All though the game there are references to other PopCap games (the developer of Bejewelled. FYI), in jokes and little humourous tidbits that make the whole experience very enjoyable. A previous version of the game feature a dancing Michael Jackson Thrillar zombie with Thrillar zombie backup dancers, but a year after his death the zombie was replaced with a generic '70's disco zombie at the agent's request (or something to that extent).
The game is available for about $20 online and as a hard copy.
Firstly, I'd like to thank The Odd Duck for her post about her new readers. She mentioned that she liked what I've been writing which is a huge incentive to keep writing and shows me that people are actually reading what I write (because my comments are STILL down. Time for a follow up email, I think). Anyway, The Odd Duck writes some really interesting posts, so I suggest that you go and check her out A.S.A.P
Now, you those of you with fast internet and a love for playing puzzle/ adventure, here is a game for you to really get into. My boyfriend showed me the games (there are eight in total, and are all part of the story- scroll down to find them all) a few weeks ago and we spent a whole evening playing them. They are really fun and require a lot of thinking. The game is set in about the 1920's, but with a subtle Steampunk twist. It also involves magic, decption and ancient religion.
The instructions are presented in the opening title sequence before the actual game play, but to make it breif, you play one of the three main characters and have to find clues and evidence to solve the mystery. Time elapses in the game, and if you click too many times you will die and have to start over. There is a bit of leaway with the amount of clicks you are allowed, so don't let that put you off. Just be aware.
Also, there are a few puzzles that are timed. i.e. you have to do something in a short space of time, but there aren't many. Generally, you can get up and leave the game running and nothing will happen.
In the game some of the puzzles are very VERY difficult, and some are almost impossible without help. Subsequently, I'm going to provide you with a very nice help page. Mandi's Hint page provides some clues to solve the puzzles in each of the chapters. Of course DON'T read the all of the hints on the hint page without trying all possibilites/ objects. There's no fun in that!!!
Here is a screen shot (not taken by me) from part five. Enjoy!
