RKNet Blog... Thing

I’ve been meaning to get to slapping my holiday list up here - not so much in the hopes of getting the gifts that are on my list - so I can do some slobberingly glorifying reviews of some of my favorite things.

The first thing worth noting is this great article on the MAKE blog about DIY gifts. You’d figure that anything do-it-yourself would run on the cheap side, and for some of the items I suppose it is technically cheaper, but some of these projects are for those with cash to spare.

Nevertheless, nothin’ says lovin’ like somethin’ from the… workbench. Okay that’s lame. How about: Give the gifts that keep on geeking? Uhmm… Right, well, the overall gist here is that you can make all kinds of technologically inclined do-hickies for all the open source loving, raw part digging, LED enthusiasts in your life. It will cost you between $10 (for the LED menorah) and upwards of $3,000 (for a hardcore 3d printer).

Just think, for younger people on your list, you could get one of the kits and build it together. For the musically inclined nerd on your list, you could build the Daisy Open-source MP3 Player and build a sweet ass steampunk case for it out of an Altoids tin or a Weighted Companion Cube or something.

Any way you look, fun times to be had by all.

Holy smokes!
Penny Arcade’s Gabe announced earlier that although the Child’s Play drive is over, they still have some items that did not get auctioned off. So they’re cleaning house and getting the organization a little extra somethin-somethin.

One of those items is a Nintendo Wii signed by the president of NoA, Reggie Fils-Aime.

At this moment, it’s up to $455 with 11 bids. Those of you privledged few who AREN’T broke may want to consider throwing your dollar-stuffed hat into the ring.

Incidentally, while looking for a picture of a hat full of dollars, I found this article about a car pwning the second story of a house. That’s right. The second story.

If you haven’t played it yet, get your hands on a copy of Contact. It’s put out by Atlus, who also have their name attached to quirky, excellent RPGs such as Disgaea. There’s an interview with Atlus’ Tomm Hulett at Siliconera worth reading. Its average review over at 1up.com is an 8.1.

While it’s very easy to compare the game to Earthbound, a few other games came to mind when I started getting into the gameplay. It’s got elements of RPGs with real-time battles similar to Star Tropics, Illusion of Gaia or Land Stalker. (As well as other games of the real-time battle RPG genre, but those are some of my personal favorites.)

It’s got fun side quests and job-type things like cooking, and playing with the Professor’s cat. It’s got plenty of internet nerd humor, too.

When you first fire up the game, it asks you to put in your name, and asks you a few questions about yourself. I have a sneaking suspicion that is related to the online play feature. I have yet to explore that.

Nintendo Gal has some pretty neat articles about this here game too under the tag Contact.

I’ve barely scratched the surface of this game and I already love it. Took me a few minutes to figure out some of the finer points of combat, but that was largely because I refused to consult the booklet. My one complaint is that it’s pretty easy to drag the stylus over your character (Terry) and bring up the menu prompt. It makes finding hidden triggers, walking, and sometimes combat difficult if you’re like me and don’t learn from your mistakes right away. I think I’ve gotten a handle on how to avoid that, and it’s just a quick tap of the stylus to clear that menu if you do make a mistake like that anyhow.

Forgive my disjointed review, I’m distractable today and I haven’t quite learned enough to provide a real full review. I’m just so excited about the potential of this game that I had to at least encourage further investigation. :)